Word.ws English Dictionary

taking a powder

taking a powder is the present participle and gerund of take a powder.

Meaning of take a powder

Verb

take a powder (third-person singular simple present takes a powder, present participle taking a powder, simple past took a powder, past participle taken a powder)

  1. (US, colloquial, idiomatic) To leave without saying goodbye; to leave quietly, to run away; to scram; to depart without taking leave or notifying anyone, often with the implication of avoiding something unpleasant or shirking responsibility.
    • Macdonald spoke slowly, bitterly. "The kidnapping is one too many for me, Costello. I don't want any part of it. I'm takin' a powder from this toy mob. I took a chance that bright boy might side me."1933, Raymond Chandler, “Blackmailers Don't Shoot”, in Collected Stories, Everyman's Library, published 2002, page 20

Questions about taking a powder

What is taking a powder the present participle and gerund of?
Taking a powder is the present participle and gerund of take a powder.

Words near taking a powder in the dictionary

  1. taking a pew
  2. taking a picture
  3. taking a pill
  4. taking a piss
  5. taking a pitch
  6. taking a powder
  7. taking a pull
  8. taking a rain check
  9. taking a raincheck
  10. taking a reef in
  11. taking a ride to Tyburn

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taking a powder (page history and authors); take a powder (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: “taking a powder.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/taking_a_powder. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.