Definition

1. 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.

2. 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

1. twitch the hook of a fishing line through or along the surface of water
2. cause to skip over a surface
   • Skip a stone across the pond
3. glide easily along a surface
4. to move about or proceed hurriedly
   • so terrified by the extraordinary ebbing of the sea that they scurried to higher ground