different between streak vs skedaddle

English

Etymology

From Middle English streke, from Old English strica, from Proto-Germanic *strikiz, from Proto-Indo-European *streyg- (“line”). Related to North Frisian strijck, Old Saxon striki, Middle Low German streke, Low German streek, Danish streg, Swedish streck, Norwegian Bokmål strek, Icelandic stryk, strykr, Dutch streek, Afrikaans streek, Old High German strih, German Strich, Gothic ???????????????????????? (striks).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?i?k/
• Rhymes: -i?k

Noun

streak (plural streaks)

1. An irregular line left from smearing or motion.

2. A continuous series of like events.

3. The color of the powder of a mineral. So called, because a simple field test for a mineral is to streak it against unglazed white porcelain.
4. A moth of the family Geometridae, Chesias legatella.
   • Streak (moth) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
5. A tendency or characteristic, but not a dominant or pervasive one.
6. (shipbuilding) A strake.
7. A rung or round of a ladder.
8. The act of streaking, or running naked through a public area

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

streak (third-person singular simple present streaks, present participle streaking, simple past and past participle streaked)

1. (intransitive) To have or obtain streaks.

   If you clean a window in direct sunlight, it will streak.

2. (intransitive, slang) To run naked in public. (Contrast flash)

   It was a pleasant game until some guy went streaking across the field.

3. (transitive) To create streaks.

   You will streak a window by cleaning it in direct sunlight.
4. (transitive) To move very swiftly.
5. (obsolete, Britain, Scotland) To stretch; to extend; hence, to lay out, as a dead body.

Translations

See also

• losing streak
• streaker
• winning streak
• talk a blue streak

Anagrams

• Akters, Kaster, Krastë, Skater, Staker, Starke, Tasker, retask, sakret, skater, staker, strake, takers, tasker, trakes

English

Etymology

19th century US - dramatically appearing and gaining prominence in Civil War military contexts around 1861, and rapidly passing into more general use. Possibly an alteration of British dialect scaddle (“to run off in a fright”), from the adjective scaddle (“wild, timid, skittish”), from Middle English scathel, skadylle (“harmful, fierce, wild”), perhaps of North Germanic/Scandinavian origin, from Old Norse *sköþull; or from Old English *scaþol, *sceaþol (see scathel); akin to Old Norse skaði (“harm”).

Possibly related to the Ancient Greek ???????? (skédasis, “scattering”), ????????? (skedasmós, “dispersion”). Possibly related to scud or scat.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /sk??dæd?l/
• Rhymes: -æd?l

Verb

skedaddle (third-person singular simple present skedaddles, present participle skedaddling, simple past and past participle skedaddled)

1. (informal, intransitive, US) To move or run away quickly.
   • 1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift [Avon ed., 1976, pl. 122]:

     Then filled with inspiration he drove in his Buick, the busted muffler blasting in the country lanes and the great long car skedaddling dangerously on the curves. Lucky for the woodchucks they were already hibernating.
2. (transitive, regional) To spill; to scatter.

Synonyms

• (move or run away quickly): flee, vamoose, scat, take off, make tracks, get lost, kick rocks, hightail; see also Thesaurus:move quickly, Thesaurus:rush or Thesaurus:flee

Translations

Noun

skedaddle (plural skedaddles)

1. (informal) The act of running away; a scurrying off.

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Fanciful 19th century American coinages

References

• 1897, Hunter, Robert, and Charles Morris, editors, Universal Dictionary of the English Language, v4, p4291: "Etym. doubtful; perhaps allied to scud. To betake one's self hurriedly to flight; to run away as in a panic; to fly in terror. (A word of American origin.)"
• Michael Quinion (7 February 2004) , “Skedaddle”, in World Wide Words