skitter
/'skitə/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Verb (intransitive):
- To move lightly, quickly, and nervously, often with a skipping or skimming motion.
- To glide or skip rapidly and lightly over a surface.
- To proceed or move about in a hurried, agitated, or erratic manner.
Verb (transitive):
- To cause something to skip or bounce lightly and rapidly across a surface.
- To draw (a fishing lure or bait) over the surface of the water with a twitching or jerking motion.
Usage
- Intransitive Verb: Describes the quick, light movement of a person, animal, or object.
- The lizard skittered across the hot pavement.
- Leaves skittered along the sidewalk in the autumn wind.
- Transitive Verb: Describes the action of making something move in such a way.
- He skittered the flat stone across the calm lake.
- The angler skittered the fly over the water to attract the fish.
Examples
- Intransitive Use:
- Spiders often skitter away when a light is turned on.
- Her thoughts skittered from one worry to the next.
- The news made a skitter of excitement run through the crowd.
- Transitive Use:
- Try to skitter the lure just under the surface.
- Children love to skitter stones on a pond.
Advanced Usage
- Descriptive Use: Often used to convey a sense of speed combined with lightness, fragility, or alarm.
- A ghostly silence was broken only by the sound of rats skittering in the walls.
- Figurative Use: Can describe rapid, unfocused mental activity or the quick spread of information or sensation.
- Fear skittered down her spine.
Variants and Related Words
- Skittery (adjective): Nervous, jumpy, or making skittering movements.
- The skittery horse was spooked by the noise.
- Skittering (noun/gerund): The action or sound of skittering.
- We heard the skittering of tiny claws in the attic.
Synonyms
- Scamper: To run quickly and lightly.
- Scuttle: To move with short, quick steps.
- Scurry: To move hurriedly with short, quick steps.
- Skip: To move along lightly, stepping from one foot to the other with a hop or bounce.
- Glide: To move smoothly and continuously.
Related Phrasal Verbs/Constructions
(Note: "Skitter" is not commonly used in standard phrasal verb constructions. Its meaning is typically contained in the single verb.) - Skitter across/along/away/off: These prepositions are commonly used with "skitter" to indicate direction. - The beetle skittered away from my foot. - Paper scraps skittered along the street.
Related Idioms
(Note: There are no common idioms centered on the word "skitter.")
Verb
- twitch the hook of a fishing line through or along the surface of water
- cause to skip over a surface
- Skip a stone across the pond
- glide easily along a surface
- to move about or proceed hurriedly
- so terrified by the extraordinary ebbing of the sea that they scurried to higher ground