Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To go as fast as possible, especially in fleeing.
- idiom (hightail it) To hurry or flee.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
retreat quickly .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb leave as fast as possible
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word hightail.
Examples
-
But an alert from Outlook reminded me that I had one hour to grab the cute uncomfortable shoes I stow under my desk and hightail it downtown.
Technology: My Marriage's Secret Glue Katherine Rosman 2011
-
Double-quick dare-dare, I ditch Nefertiti — and any other newfangled notions about nursing time — and hightail my hide back to the coffee machine in time to make my husband his café with cream.
-
Dont say nuke too many times Big John will hightail it u nder the bed.
-
Now that I think on it, if it does happen to be full of beer, we could have a quick draught before we hightail it away.
-
On some nights I could hear my eggs plotting and whispering in tiny cartoon voices, packing up their bags in preparation to hightail it out of there.
Live and Let Love Andrea Buchanan 2011
-
Dont say nuke too many times Big John will hightail it u nder the bed.
-
Adrenaline snaked through my limbs, urging me to bolt, to hightail it out of Rocquemore House and never look back.
Darkness Becomes Her Kelly Keaton 2011
-
If Mrs. Sanford has a a shred of dignity left and if she really cares most about her role i.e. role model to her sons, she'll read that besotted fool's self-absorbed drivel and hightail-it straight to her attorney's office!
-
When he then tried to get management actually to make a plan, even calling on Oscar to speak truth to this perceived power, no one went for it, and Michael was left only with the option to call them names and hightail it back to the comped limo.
-
When she was too insecure to come out of her dressing room on some mornings, Jane would hightail it over there and tell her to get moving -- the crew was waiting.
Danny Miller: Jane Russell, Right-Wing Republican and Good Ol' Gal (1921-2011) Danny Miller 2011
john commented on the word hightail
Slang for running away quickly. I presume it comes from the fact that deer hold their tails straight up when they bolt.
October 29, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word hightail
Interestingly, about white-tail deer anyways, it is thought that they evolved white undersides on their tails to function as a warning flag to other deer.
If you're a deer, and you see that white tail, you know the other deer is fleeing something and you ought to consider doing the same. Something like that.
I always thought that was a pretty cool evolutionary tool.
It reminds me of that Gary Larson cartoon of a deer with a target on its chest: "Bummer of a birthmark, Hal."
October 30, 2007
reesetee commented on the word hightail
That's also a sign of danger in the bird world. Birdwatchers are warned not to wear white in the field so as not to scare away all the good birds.
October 30, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word hightail
Yes, that's true! The other animal that was used as an example in whatever the hell it was I was reading about the white-tailed deer, was a mourning dove. They have white streaks on their tail feathers, which, when the birds are startled, spread to make the white highly visible.
October 30, 2007
reesetee commented on the word hightail
And a bonus: thanks to John, I'm adding "hightail it home" to my Mom list. :-)
October 30, 2007
oroboros commented on the word hightail
Cf. nip and tuck.
December 27, 2009