scutter
/ˈskʌtə(ɹ)/
scutter verb: to run with a light pattering noise; to skitter.
Verb (1)
scutter (third-person singular simple present scutters, present participle scuttering, simple past and past participle scuttered)
- To run with a light pattering noise; to skitter.
- We saw a rat scuttering into a dark corner as we turned on the lights.
- I scuttered all the way to Dallory, and scuttered back again ; and I don’t think I stopped to speak to a single soul, but Timothy Wilks.”1886, Mrs. Henry Wood, Bessy Rane, Richard Bentley & Son, page 122
Noun (1)
scutter (countable and uncountable, plural scutters)
Noun (2)
scutter (countable and uncountable, plural scutters)
- Thin excrement.
- Cows were always scuttering: they left mounds and trails of scutter all over the place.2001, Ciaran O'Driscoll, A Runner Among Falling Leaves, page 74
Verb (2)
scutter (third-person singular simple present scutters, present participle scuttering, simple past and past participle scuttered)
- To void thin excrement.
- Nay then I wil geue you no bread and butter.
Here, take some, it will make thee to scutter.1565, Alois Brandl, editor, King Daryus - Cows were always scuttering: they left mounds and trails of scutter all over the place.2001, Ciaran O'Driscoll, A Runner Among Falling Leaves, page 74
- Nay then I wil geue you no bread and butter.
Examples of scutter in a sentence
- A mangy little jackal […] cocked up his ears and tail, and scuttered across the shallows.1895 November, Rudyard Kipling, The Second Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC:
- A hundred scuttering bambinos, each one no bigger than a poppyseed.1988, David Quammen, The Flight of the Iguana:
- When the birds, especially the starlings, ate them in vast quantities, the results were often spectacular — they scuttered everywhere and over everything.2014, Anthony Holten, Of Other Days, [self-published], page 122:
- He lifted it, and furred rodents scuttered away at the movement.2014, Arthur Leo Zagat, The Red Finger Pulp Mystery Megapack: 12 Tales of the Masked Hero, Wildside Press, page 61:
Forms of scutter
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | scutters |
| present participle | scuttering |
| past participle | scuttered |
| past | scuttered |
| Noun | |
| plural | scutters |
Origin of scutter
Alteration of scuttle.
Alteration of squitter.
Words formed from scutter
Words that rhyme with scutter
Questions about scutter
- What does scutter mean?
- Scutter means to run with a light pattering noise; to skitter.
- How do you use scutter in a sentence?
- A mangy little jackal […] cocked up his ears and tail, and scuttered across the shallows.
- What part of speech is scutter?
- Scutter can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce scutter?
- Scutter is pronounced /ˈskʌtə(ɹ)/.
- What is the past tense of scutter?
- The past tense of scutter is scuttered.
Words near scutter in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scutter (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “scutter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scutter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.