scuttle
scuttle Lexical Profile
scuttle Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To run or move hurriedly with short, quick steps, often in a furtive or nervous manner.
"Small crabs scuttled across the wet sand and disappeared beneath the rocks as we approached."
To deliberately cause a plan, negotiation, or undertaking to fail or be abandoned.
"A sudden disagreement over funding threatened to scuttle the bipartisan infrastructure bill."
To deliberately sink a ship or boat by opening its seacocks or cutting holes in its hull.
"The crew chose to scuttle the decommissioned vessel offshore to create an artificial reef for marine life."
• noun
A hurried, short-stepped gait or a quick, furtive run.
"The quiet scuttle of tiny paws across the attic floorboards woke the guests at midnight."
A metal container or bucket with a sloped lip and hinged handle, used for carrying and pouring coal onto a domestic fire.
"He fetched a full scuttle of coal from the cellar to keep the parlor stove burning through the evening."
A small opening or hatchway with a movable lid in the deck or hull of a ship, or in the roof or wall of a building.
"The sailors fastened the deck scuttle tightly as heavy waves began washing over the bow."
Word Nuance & Usage
'Scuttle' represents three historically distinct homographs that converged in spelling: one meaning to run with quick, hurried steps, another referring to a coal bucket, and a third nautical term meaning to deliberately sink a vessel or ruin a plan.
• Rhymes for scuttle
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
The word merges three separate origins: the container sense comes from Old English 'scutel' (dish or platter), borrowed from Latin 'scutella'; the nautical hatch and sinking sense comes from Middle French 'escoutille'; and the hurried movement sense is likely a dialectal variant of 'scuddle' or related to Old Norse 'skunda' (to hasten).