Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use skitter in a sentence

15 example sentences · verb, noun

Skitter means to move hurriedly or as by bouncing or twitching; to scamper, to scurry; to scuttle. Example: “I opened the cabinet and a number of cockroaches went skittering off into the darkness.”

Examples of skitter by meaning

verbTo move hurriedly or as by bouncing or twitching; to scamper, to scurry; to scuttle.

  • I opened the cabinet and a number of cockroaches went skittering off into the darkness.

nounA skittering movement.

  • I had seen an aerial helix of raptors, hawks and harriers riding a thermal, and below them a skitter of ringed plover and other waders, together with more kingfishers than I had ever seen before.1976 June 3, John Hillaby, “Out and About: Firebird”, in Bernard Dixon, editor, New Scientist, volume 70, number 1003, London: New Science...
  • With a skitter of excitement, Marcy glanced at the clock on the parlor mantel.2010, Julie Lessman, A Hope Undaunted: A Novel (Winds of Change; 1), Grand Rapids, Mich.: Revell Books, Baker Publishing Group, →ISBN...

verbTo suffer from a bout of diarrhea; to produce thin excrement.

  • Still, at least a tree couldn't skitter diarrhoea down the front of your jeans, or bellow to be bucket-fed warm milk in the middle of the night, so that was a bonus.2001, Peter Kerr, “Wood for Thought”, in Mañana, Mañana: One Mallorcan Summer, Chichester, West Sussex: Summersdale Publishers, →ISBN

nounOften skitters: the condition of suffering from diarrhea; thin excrement.

  • I can't give it my immediate attention, as the cow has the skitter (diarrhoea) and I'm waiting on the Vit (vet).2013, Cathal McCosker, “Wild Men Appear”, in Man Up and Paddle!: A Wild and Dangerous Circumnavigation around Ireland, [Morrisville...
  • Shaking but making herself stand there while skitter ran down the inside of her legs.2014, Mango Gorman, “God Demands a Holocaust”, in Bone and Blood: A Berlin Novel, Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire: Matador, →ISBN, page...

More sentences with skitter

  • A drum horse called Apollo would not behave, skittering sideways determinedly.6 May 2023, Rachel Cooke, “It was ludicrous but also magnificent: the coronation stirred every emotion”, in The Guardian. From the entry drum horse
  • All Kouichi Furutono wanted to do was expose Japanese audiences to the skittering sounds of Chicago juke music.2018 October 5, Patrick St. Michel, “The Inventive World of Japan’s Juke and Footwork Scene”, in Bandcamp Daily. From the entry juke
  • Porridgy breakfast-time chatter skitters up the stairs.2018, Nancy Tucker, “Abby”, in That Was When People Started to Worry: Windows into Unwell Minds, London: Icon Books Ltd, →ISBN. From the entry porridgy
  • I skittered around a group of slow-moving tourists, cursing Afton for insisting I get up early and wear a skirt today.2016 January 5, Brenda Drake, Thief of Lies, Entangled: Teen, →ISBN. From the entry slobber
  • As it skitters along the ground, it makes a tinny, tinfoily little noise as its edges scrape along the concrete.2006, Michael Chorost, Rebuilt: My Journey Back to the Hearing World, page 54. From the entry tinfoily
  • That moral thought is all very fine if you live where jack rabbits skitter twelve months a year.1956, Field and Stream, volume 61, page 118. From the entry handload
  • Shooting the bull with Benny and Elvira while Nelson skitters around out there in the lake of rooftops, selling used cars like hotcakes.1990, John Updike, Rabbit at Rest. From the entry shoot the bull
  • Witchdoctor's moment is "The Ritual," where snares, brushes, and cymbals replicate drum'n'bass's skittering fascination, a Reznorian chill grips the air, and the MC chants bleak urban snapshots.1998, SPIN, volume 14, number 7, page 121. From the entry Reznorian
  • I only got to my feet from instinct, but there I suddenly was, upright and alive, skittering in front of all that jawing mess with my little board chattering underfoot.2008, Tim Winton, Breath, Picador UK Paperback edition 2008, Ch.11, p.53, 54. From the entry hellman

Meaning of skitter

  1. verb To move hurriedly or as by bouncing or twitching; to scamper, to scurry; to scuttle.
  2. verb To make a scratching or scuttling noise while, or as if, skittering.
  3. verb To move or pass (something) over a surface quickly so that it touches only at intervals; to skip, to skite.

Full definition of skitter

Questions about skitter in a sentence

How do you use skitter in a sentence?
Skitter is used as a verb and noun. For example: “I opened the cabinet and a number of cockroaches went skittering off into the darkness.”
What is a short sentence with skitter?
“Porridgy breakfast-time chatter skitters up the stairs.”
What does skitter mean?
Skitter means to move hurriedly or as by bouncing or twitching; to scamper, to scurry; to scuttle.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: skitter (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use skitter in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/skitter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.