different between hotfoot vs scurry

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

Etymology

Perhaps from hurry-skurry, a reduplication of hurry.

Pronunciation

• enPR: sk??r(?)
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?sk??i/
• (General American) IPA^(key): (with the "Hurry-furry" merger) /?sk??i/
• Rhymes: -?ri
• Hyphenation: scur?ry

Verb

scurry (third-person singular simple present scurries, present participle scurrying, simple past and past participle scurried)

1. To run with quick light steps, to scamper.
   • 1964, William Golding, Lord of the Flies

     Then the piglet tore loose from the creepers and scurried into the undergrowth.

Synonyms

• (run with quick light steps): scamper
• (do things quickly): hurry, zoom; see also Thesaurus:rush

Derived terms

• ascurry
• scurry away
• scurry off

Translations

Noun

scurry (plural scurries)

1. A dash.
   • 1845, Sporting Magazine (volume 5, page 25)

     Found a fox in Deerstone, and after a great deal of music, and a scurry or two round the wood, went away over Whigford Down, but he was too far before them to make any more quick music […]