scamper - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

First attested in 1687. Origin uncertain, but possibly from Dutch schamperen, from Old French escamper, from Vulgar Latin *excampāre.

scamper (plural scampers)

  1. A quick, light run.

scamper (third-person singular simple present scampers, present participle scampering, simple past and past participle scampered)

  1. (intransitive) To run lightly and quickly, especially in a playful or undignified manner.
    Synonyms: scurry; see also Thesaurus:walk
    The dog scampered after the squirrel.
    • 1791 (first performance), [Frederic] Reynolds, Notoriety: A Comedy, Dublin: […] P. Byrne, […], published 1792, →OCLC, Act IV, scene [i], page 43:
      [W]hy if you don't ſcamper, you'll be baſtil'd, before you can ſay, "Killarney."
    • 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 198:
      And so saying he scampered off to the hill, to the amusement of honest Plat; and it is likely lost no time in making his advances to the young widow.
    • 1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as chapter 1, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, June 1914, →OCLC:
      The younger and lighter members of his tribe scampered to the higher branches of the great trees to escape his wrath; risking their lives upon branches that scarce supported their weight rather than face old Kerchak in one of his fits of uncontrolled anger.
    • 2017 June 3, Daniel Taylor, “Real Madrid win Champions League as Cristiano Ronaldo double defeats Juve”, in The Guardian (London)‎[1]:
      Three minutes later, Luka Modric scampered down the right, clipped a cross to the near post and Ronaldo’s clipped finish gave the remainder of the match an air of inevitability.

to run lightly and quickly, especially in a playful manner or in an undignified manner

From scamp + -er.

scamper (plural scampers)

  1. One who skimps or does slipshod work.
    Synonym: skimper