scutter

English

Noun

scutter (plural scutters)

1. Thin excrement.
2. A hasty run.

Verb

scutter (third-person singular simple present scutters, present participle scuttering, simple past and past participle scuttered)

1. To void thin excrement.
   • 1565, Alois Brandl (ed.), King Daryus:

     Nay then I wil geue you no bread and butter.
     Here, take some, it will make thee to scutter.

2. To run with a light pattering noise; to skitter.

   We saw a rat scuttering into a dark corner as we turned on the lights.

   • Rudyard Kipling

     A mangy little jackal […] cocked up his ears and tail, and scuttered across the shallows.

   • 1988, David Quammen, The Flight of the Iguana:

     These [spiders] in my office were newborn babies. A hundred scuttering bambinos, each one no bigger than a poppyseed. Too small still for red hourglasses, too small even for red egg timers.

Derived terms

• bullscutter
• scutterer

See also

• Web scutter

Anagrams

• Cutters, curtest, cutters