skulk
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: government
military
nautical
politics
transport
war
Etymology: From Middle English sculke, skulke, skulken, of North Germanic origin; compare Danish skulke (“shirk”), Swedish skolka (“play truant”).
Inflected forms:
form: skulks
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: skulks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: skulking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: skulked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: skulked
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A group of foxes.
pos: noun
tags: collective
examples: A skulk of foxes, a cowardice of curs are tonight’s traffic whispering in the yards and lanes.
A skulk of fox padded daintily over a stream-slashed meadow, and a herd of deer like iron ornaments stood stock still in their winter pelage.
A group of foxes is called a skulk.
gloss: A group of people seen as being fox-like (e.g. cunning, dishonest, or having nefarious plans).
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: […] a skulk of priests flapped out of the Church of San Geronimo, and women kneeling at novena put away their beads […]
The law was served by a skulk of informers, who traded their whispers to the royal foresters and woodwards, who gilded their tales for the verderers and regarders, who presented the guilty to the forest Justices.
[…] they went on, down the road, staggering, and shouldering each other, like a skulk of Jacobean villains.
Ten days after the attacks, a skulk of insurance executives met with President Bush and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans to press for the creation of a multibillion-dollar government safety net to limit their exposure to future terrorist incidents.
gloss: The act of skulking.
pos: noun
examples: A part of their company, who had been sent out on a skulk, had not returned, and great anxiety was felt lest they had fallen into an ambush and been captured.
There was only the danger that his horse might lame himself in the night; but then he could go back in the hills and make a skulk on foot.
Willie knew that the time was propitious for a skulk across Hall, thence into the class-room of Mr. Beach.
That gave him three or four more hours of darkness in which to plan an escape more sensible than a skulk to the hut next door.
gloss: The act of skulking.
pos: noun
examples: His gait was something between a slouch and a skulk.
Romen had developed a kind of strut to replace his former skulk.
gloss: The act of skulking.
pos: noun
examples: [They took] good care […] to swing their hammocks as far abaft as possible, for the twofold purpose of having a skulk in their watch below at night, and to keep clear of the sprays, which usually pour down the gratings […]
“This nonsense won’t do for me, you know; if you want a skulk, you had better pack off back to the house.”
Bidwell is not the only one who feigns paralysis; many poison their flesh by inserting in it copper-wire or worsted; others swallow ground glass, eat poisonous insects, swallow soap and soda, or slightly maim and disable themselves. Anything by which they can secure a skulk, and escape from what Mr. Carlyle has wisely called the “sacredness of work.”
gloss: One who avoids an obligation or responsibility.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: .
"I shall do my duty, Mr. Jackson," replied Newton, "and fear no consequences." / "Indeed! you saw how I settled a skulk just now;—beware of his fate!"
Toward evening there was something to be done on deck, and the carpenter who belonged to the watch was missing. “Where’s that skulk, Chips?” shouted Jermin down the forecastle scuttle.
If you should ever need help, my son, let this be your rule—‘never ask it from the man who deserted his country in her hour of need.’ The soldier’s child will find no mercy from a skulk, depend on it.
An exempt, a skulk, or one upon whom rested the faintest suspicion of evading duty or shrinking in the critical hour of impending battle, was the special object of his wrath.
gloss: To stay where one cannot be seen, conceal oneself (often in a cowardly way or with the intent of doing harm).
pos: verb
examples: 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?
Discover’d and defeated of your Prey,
You sculk’d behind the Fence, and sneak’d away.
[…] vice skulks, with all its native deformity, from close investigation;
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.
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.
gloss: To move in a stealthy or furtive way; to come or go while trying to avoid detection.
pos: verb
examples: 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.
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.
Noble brother, I am
Not one of those men who in words are valiant,
And when it comes to action skulk away.
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 […]
Fully a dozen of the citizens had seen him hastening toward the woods and noted his skulking air [...]
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.
gloss: To avoid an obligation or responsibility.
pos: verb
examples: 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;
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.
Derived words: skulker
skulkingly
Translations: