Word of the Day

: September 6, 2019

skulk

verb SKULK

What It Means

1 : to move in a stealthy or furtive manner

2 : to hide or conceal something (such as oneself) often out of cowardice or fear or with sinister intent

skulk in Context

The cat often skulks around the foyer, waiting for someone to open the front door.

"Engineers did not, for instance, want the robot to silently skulk up and scare anyone—but how exactly should it announce itself? They tested a wide range of noises, from Road Runner-style 'beep-beeps' to the honks of reversing forklifts before settling on a pleasant yet insistent chirp they mixed from a clip of birdsong." — Drew Harwell, The Washington Post, 6 June 2019

Did You Know?

Here's one for the word-puzzle lovers. Can you name three things that the word skulk has in common with all of these other words: booth, brink, cog, flit, kid, meek, scab, seem, and skull? If you noticed that all of the terms on that list have just one syllable, then you've got the first, and easiest, similarity, but the next two are likely to prove a little harder to guess. Do you give up? All of the words listed above are of Scandinavian origin and all were first recorded in English in the 13th century. As for skulk specifically, its closest known Scandinavian relative is the Norwegian dialect word skulka, which means "to lie in wait" or "to lurk."