sculking

Some are flamboyant and colourful; many are downright furtive, sculking on the tops of mountains or at the bottom of damp bogs.

How I became a lepidopterist Patrick Barkham 2010

I was so embarrassed I spent the next 3 years sculking through the corridors in case she remembered my utter dorkiness.

Found Kirsty 2006

On the other hand, John Norris, pressed at Gallions Reach out of a collier and "ordered to walk the quarter-deck as a midshipman," proved such a "laisie, sculking, idle fellow," and so "filled the sloop and men with vermin," that his promoter had serious thoughts of "turning him ashore."

The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore

Several others were noticed close by, none of which, Bradley protested, had been made by our party, and certainly not by a bear, but by some sculking Indians, who had been very likely hovering about us.

California Four Months among the Gold-Finders, being the Diary of an Expedition from San Francisco to the Gold Districts Henry Vizetelly 1857

In the afternoon a fresh gale set right into the bay, which made the ship ride with her stern very near the shore, and we observed a great number of the natives sculking among the trees upon the beach, who probably expected that the wind would have forced the ship on shore.

A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12 Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time Robert Kerr 1784

Horsemen on wide downs are often closely attended by a little party of swallows for miles together, which plays before and behind them, sweeping around them, and collecting all the sculking insects that are roused by the trampling of the horses 'feet: when the wind blows hard, without this expedient, they are often forced to settle to pick up their lurking prey.

The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 2 Gilbert White 1756

While Mars in a corner lay sculking, lay sculking.

Larry Grogan 1736

Didn’t you have better things to be concentrating on and doing on Easter morning than sculking around trying to take ‘incriminating’ photos?

The Diocese of Niagara is employing bouncers « Anglican Samizdat 2009

We had a near view of the natives too, one day, trying to catch us in a whale-boat, whilst we were hugging the land sculking from the strength of the tide of flood: but, thank Heaven! they missed taking us as we went about on the opposite tack, the which I shall ever consider a providential escape, although at the time, a heedless confidence in our numbers led Captain Maxwell to throw them the end of a rope.

Impressions of America During the years 1833, 1834 and 1835. In Two Volumes, Volume I. Tyrone Power 1818

Besides, "said he," many of your devils, and your damned too, whom you dispatched to the world to tempt folks, are not returned, though their time is out; and others have arrived in a sculking manner, and not given an account of their errands. "

The Sleeping Bard or, Visions of the World, Death, and Hell Ellis Wynne 1702