different between hotfoot vs scamper

English

Etymology

From Middle English hot-fot, hot fot, equivalent to hot +? foot.

Noun

hotfoot (plural hotfoots)

1. (US) The prank of secretly inserting a match between the sole and upper of a victim's shoe and then lighting it.

Adjective

hotfoot

1. Moving with haste or zeal.
   • 1938, Elwyn Brooks White, The Fox of Peapack, and Other Poems (page 137)

     Half the populace are idle, / Half are busy in a room; / All are gravebound from the cradle, / All are hotfoot for their doom.

Adverb

hotfoot

1. (Britain) hastily; without delay.

Translations

Verb

hotfoot (third-person singular simple present hotfoots, present participle hotfooting, simple past and past participle hotfooted)

1. (transitive) To run (a distance).
   • 2007, R.C. Harvey, Meanwhile...

     He hotfooted the four-and-a-half blocks across town to the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue and checked out the books Patterson had mentioned—and everything else about China he could quickly think of.

   • 2010, Eric Hammel, Coral and Blood: The U.S. Marine Corps’ Pacific Campaign (page 55)

     The Ford was shot up heavily, so Larkin hotfooted the last mile to Ewa. Once there, he took cover beneath a truck as unchallenged Zeros strafed the neatly parked MAG-21 aircraft and the base facilities.

Derived terms

• hotfoot it
• hotfoot spell

Translations

Anagrams

• foothot

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?skæmp?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?skæmp?/
• Rhymes: -æmp?(r)

Etymology 1

First attested in 1687. Origin uncertain, but possibly from Dutch schamperen, from Old French escamper, from Italian scampare (“to run away”).

Noun

scamper (plural scampers)

1. A quick, light run.

Verb

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

1. (intransitive) To run quickly and lightly, especially in a playful or undignified manner.

   The dog scampered after the squirrel.

   • 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 1

     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.

Synonyms

• scurry
• See also Thesaurus:walk

Translations

Etymology 2

scamp +? -er

Noun

scamper (plural scampers)

1. One who skimps or does slipshod work.

   Synonym: skimper

Anagrams

• Campers, campers