hightail it

English

Alternative forms

• high-tail it

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

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Verb

hightail it (third-person singular simple present hightails it, present participle hightailing it, simple past and past participle hightailed it)

1. (informal, chiefly Canada, US) To hurry or run; often, to flee.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:move quickly, Thesaurus:flee

   He started to hightail it out of there, but I stopped him at the door.

   The cat hightailed it out of the bushes.

   • 2004, Rex Pickett, Sideways, St. Martin's Griffin, →ISBN, page 292:

     “Great! A guy getting off a night shift who hasn't been laid in years finds his wife in flagrante with some hamburger-faced guy who hightails it out the front door in his underwear. We're walking into a hornet's nest, Jackson.”

   • 2022 April 5, Michal Leibowitz, “‘I Didn’t Feel Like Going, but I’m Glad I Did’: My Motto of the Moment”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     I made awkward small talk with my seat neighbor and high-tailed it home before the socializing began in earnest.

Translations

to hurry or run; often, to flee

• Russian: сваливать (ru) (svalivatʹ)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}