Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of skulk.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun evading duty or work by pretending to be incapacitated

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Swain says there is no danger of it, but I would not care much if they did, as I hate the idea of skulking, as it were, out of the army, when my

    Letter from Henry A. London to Lilla London, February 16, 1864 1864

  • He was a Potomac ranger in the 1690s, responsible for chasing down what were then referred to as "skulking" Indians.

    More about the history and name of Cabin John Bridge 2010

  • He was a Potomac ranger in the 1690s, responsible for chasing down what were then referred to as "skulking" Indians.

    More about the history and name of Cabin John Bridge 2010

  • HARRIS: If I may, first of all, coming back to the use of the word "skulking" into the White House ...

    CNN Transcript Nov 22, 2009 2009

  • HARRIS: Christiane, if I may, first of all, coming back to the use of the word "skulking" into the White House ...

    CNN Transcript Nov 20, 2009 2009

  • My scholarship exam had fortunately concentrated on general intelligence and not math skills, and I'd survived from year to year in a kind of skulking dread of each new mathematical instrument that seemed designed for the sole purpose of tormenting me with its abstract and baffling technology.

    Broken Music, A Memoir Sting 2003

  • Deceit, trickery, lying, every kind of skulking underhand effort to get information; ceaseless endeavor to outwit and overcome

    The Man-Made World; or, Our Androcentric Culture Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1897

  • Besides making first-rate workmen, this method prevents the lads from getting into habits of workshop dishonesty, i.e. "skulking," and other annoyances.

    James Nasmyth: Engineer, An Autobiography. Nasmyth, James 1885

  • The Prince passed for a certain Lewis Caw, a surgeon's apprentice (who was actually 'skulking' in Skye at the time), and acted his part of humble retainer so well that poor Malcolm was quite embarrassed; and the rough servant-lass treated him with the contempt Highland servants seem to have for their own class, if 'Lowland bodies.'

    The True Story Book Andrew Lang 1878

  • Stutter and Wibberly, two of the sceptics, happened to be caught that very afternoon by Bloomfield in the act of "skulking" dinner -- that is, of answering to their names at the call-over, and then slipping off unobserved to enjoy a rather more elaborate clandestine meal in their own study.

    The Willoughby Captains Talbot Baines Reed 1872

Comments

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  • A milder form of lurking.

    October 20, 2007

  • Funny, skulking has always sounded worse than lurking to me.

    October 20, 2007

  • Really? I imagine skulking as hands-in-pockets shiftiness, but lurking as hands up at shoulder-level, elbows slightly bent, in a sort of pantomime about-to-pounce pose.

    October 20, 2007

  • I'm with sionnach on this one. Skulking is almost certainly up to no good, whereas lurking is more like hanging about.

    October 21, 2007