scat

Noun (1)

scat (plural scats)

1. A tax; tribute.
2. (Shetland) A land-tax paid in the Shetland Islands.

Noun (2)

scat (countable and uncountable, plural scats)

1. Animal excrement; droppings, dung.
   • They turned to polar bear feces, or scat, as it is commonly called. […] She and Quinoa [a dog] worked with Dr. Rockwell to collect and study samples of polar bear scat for several years and found that the bears were eating lots of geese.2014 September 22, James Gorman, “For polar bears, a climate change twist [print version: For hungry polar bears, a climate change twist, International New York Times, 24 September 2014, p 12]”, in...
   • Wherever legitimate tracks are found there's always some fresh scat, y'know, poo, flop, dumplings.2018 Brent Butt as Brent Herbert Leroy, "Sasquatch Your Language", Corner Gas Animated

   Synonyms:

   feces

2. (slang) Heroin.

   Synonyms:

   shit

3. (obsolete, slang) Whiskey.
4. (slang) Coprophilia, scatophilia.
   • Enema queens, like scat queens, are really the scum of the earth.1988, “Pete”, quoted in Seymour Kleinberg, Alienated Affections: Being Gay in America, Macmillan, page 183
   • “[…] I hear he’s into S&M and scat and all kinds of kinky shit. […]”1998, Dennis Cooper, Guide, Grove Press, →ISBN, page 170

   Synonyms:

   storm

Noun (3)

scat (plural scats)

1. (uncommon) A blow; a hit, an impact.
   • ... a shot rang out, followed immediately by the "scat" of a bullet against the rock behind which he lay concealed. A tramp of heavy Galloway brogans was heard, and a half-hearted kicking about among the heather bushes, and at last[…]1895, Samuel Rutherford Crockett, Bog-myrtle and Peat: Tales Chiefly of Galloway Gathered from the Years 1889 to 1895, London, Bliss, Sands and Foster, page 294
   • ... the soft and pitying eyes seemed to shame him, "like a scat in the face," he said to himself. But who was he that he should care for any blow across the cheek now, if it was not hard enough to hurt?1901, Ethel Lilian Voynich, Jack Raymond, page 173
2. (UK, dialectal) A brisk shower of rain, driven by the wind.
   • Low black Clouds on it being ſoppoſed to prognoſticate Rain in the Places beneath it, it has been a ſtanding old Saw, When Haldon hath a Hat, Kenton beware a Skat.1759, Andrew Brice, The Grand Gazetteer, or Topographic Dictionary, page 677
   • ... a scat of heavy rain on a squall of wind shut out the harbour for a time. Mrs. Tregenza waited until Joan had disappeared, then went back to her kitchen, closed the door, sat in Grey Michael's great chair by the hearth,[…]1897, Eden Phillpotts, Lying Prophets: A Novel, page 187

Noun (4)

scat (plural scats)

1. (jazz) Scat singing.

Verb (1)

scat (third-person singular simple present scats, present participle scatting, simple past and past participle scatted)

1. (jazz) To sing an improvised melodic solo using nonsense syllables, often onomatopoeic or imitative of musical instruments.

Verb (2)

scat (third-person singular simple present scats, present participle scatting, simple past and past participle scatted)

1. (colloquial) To leave quickly.
   • Here comes the principal; we'd better scat.
   • We have to scat! Oh-oh—I forgot to look at the clock!2013, Eldot, The Champions, page 245

Interjection

1. (colloquial) An imperative demand to leave, often understood by speaker and listener as impertinent.
   • Scat! Go on! Get out of here!
   • Scat! Shoo! Scat! Geet up! Geet on! Nobody's sick in this house! Nobody wants you here!1903, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Though Life Us Do Part, page 223

Noun (5)

scat (plural scats)

1. Any fish in the family Scatophagidae.