skulk

English[edit]

From Middle English skulken, of North Germanic origin, cf. Danish skulke (“shirk”).

skulk (plural skulks)

skulk (third-person singular simple present skulks, present participle skulking, simple past and past participle skulked)

to conceal oneself; to hide
- 1852, Dickens, Bleak House, chapter 26
  
  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.
to sneak around, sneak about
- 1904, Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Lynching Of Jube Benson
  
  Fully a dozen of the citizens had seen him hastening toward the woods and noted his skulking air [...]
to shirk; to avoid obligation

to conceal oneself; to hide