scutter

present singular third person scutters · participle present scuttering · participle past scuttered · past scuttered

1. To run with a light pattering noise; to skitter.

   We saw a rat scuttering into a dark corner as we turned on the lights.

   5 more examples

   I scuttered all the way to Dallory, and scuttered back again ; and I don’t think I stopped to speak to a single soul, but Timothy Wilks.”

   1886, Mrs. Henry Wood, Bessy Rane, Richard Bentley & Son, page 122

   A mangy little jackal […] cocked up his ears and tail, and scuttered across the shallows.

   1895 November, Rudyard Kipling, The Second Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC

   These [spiders] in my office were newborn babies. A hundred scuttering bambinos, each one no bigger than a poppyseed. Too small still for red hourglasses, too small even for red egg timers.

   1988, David Quammen, The Flight of the Iguana

   When the birds, especially the starlings, ate them in vast quantities, the results were often spectacular — they scuttered everywhere and over everything.

   2014, Anthony Holten, Of Other Days, [self-published], page 122

   Red Finger’s gun was still in his hand. He lifted it, and furred rodents scuttered away at the movement. He aimed the weapon carefully at the front of the dark truck body, low down.

   2014, Arthur Leo Zagat, The Red Finger Pulp Mystery Megapack: 12 Tales of the Masked Hero, Wildside Press, page 61

plural scutters

1. countableuncountableA hasty run.

plural scutters

1. countableuncountableThin excrement.

   Cows were always scuttering: they left mounds and trails of scutter all over the place.

   2001, Ciaran O'Driscoll, A Runner Among Falling Leaves, page 74

present singular third person scutters · participle present scuttering · participle past scuttered · past scuttered

1. To void thin excrement.

   Cows were always scuttering: they left mounds and trails of scutter all over the place.

   2001, Ciaran O'Driscoll, A Runner Among Falling Leaves, page 74

   1 more example

   Nay then I wil geue you no bread and butter. Here, take some, it will make thee to scutter.

   1565, Alois Brandl, editor, King Daryus