skulk
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /skʌlk/
rhymes: -ʌlk
Forms: form: skulks
form: skulking
form: skulked
form: skulked
Etymology: From Middle English sculke, skulke, skulken, of North Germanic origin; compare Danish skulke (“shirk”), Swedish skolka (“play truant”).
Senses: examples: text: Is whispering nothing?
Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses?
Kissing with inside lip? stopping the career
Of laughing with a sigh?—a note infallible
Of breaking honesty—horsing foot on foot?
Skulking in corners? wishing clocks more swift?
ref: c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
text: Discover’d and defeated of your Prey,
You sculk’d behind the Fence, and sneak’d away.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “The Third Pastoral or, Palaemon”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 11:
text: […] vice skulks, with all its native deformity, from close investigation;
ref: 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, “The Rights and Involved Duties of Mankind Considered”, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC, page 17:
text: Behind dingy blind and curtain, in upper story and garret, skulking more or less under false names, false hair, false titles, false jewellery, and false histories, a colony of brigands lie in their first sleep.
ref: 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, “26”, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:
text: Stephen's craze for physical culture increased, and now it began to invade the schoolroom. Dumb-bells appeared in the schoolroom bookcases, while half worn-out gym shoes skulked in the corners.
ref: 1928, Radclyffe Hall, chapter 6, in The Well of Loneliness, London: Jonathan Cape, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: Covici Friede Publishers, October 1932, →OCLC, book 1, section 5, page 60:
synonyms: hide
glosses: To stay where one cannot be seen, conceal oneself (often in a cowardly way or with the intent of doing harm).
examples: text: The residue like vnto the bare arssed rebels sculked to and fro; but in the end, they and the others were all dispersed, & durst not to appeare.
ref: 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC, page 142:
text: He has been seen with her, by one whom he would not know, at Cuper’s Gardens; dressed like a Sea-officer, and skulking, like a thief, into the privatest walks of the place.
ref: 1753, Samuel Richardson, The History of Sir Charles Grandison, London, Volume 4, Letter 38, p. 266:
text: Noble brother, I am
Not one of those men who in words are valiant,
And when it comes to action skulk away.
ref: 1800, Friedrich Schiller, translated by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Piccolomini, or The First Part of Wallenstein, London: Longman and Rees, act V, scene 4, page 196:
text: Sir Francis Clavering made his appearance, and skulked for a while about the magnificent rooms; but the company and the splendour which he met there were not to the Baronet’s taste […]
ref: 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 46, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
text: Fully a dozen of the citizens had seen him hastening toward the woods and noted his skulking air [...]
ref: 1904, Paul Laurence Dunbar, “The Lynching of Jube Benson”, in The Heart of Happy Hollow, New York: Dodd, Mead, page 233:
text: Generally, women can’t do this, but men retain the ancient ability to leave a family and a past. They just unhook themselves, like removing a fake beard, and skulk discreetly back into society, changed men. Unrecognizable.
ref: 2000, Zadie Smith, White Teeth, London: Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN, page 16:
synonyms: sneak
steal
glosses: To move in a stealthy or furtive way; to come or go while trying to avoid detection.
examples: text: Let discipline employ her wholesome arts,
Let magistrates alert perform their parts,
Not skulk or put on a prudential mask,
As if their duty were a desp’rate task;
ref: 1781 (date written), William Cowper, “Table Talk”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1782, →OCLC, page 17:
text: They are paid about three shillings a day for ten hours’ work—it is hard work, especially in windy weather, and there is no skulking, for an inspector comes round frequently to see that the men are on their beats.
ref: 1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XXXIII, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC:
synonyms: shirk
glosses: To avoid an obligation or responsibility.