from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
intransitive verb To run or go quickly and lightly.
noun A quick light run or movement.
from The Century Dictionary.
To run with speed; hasten away.
noun A hasty run or flight.
noun One who scamps work.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
noun A scampering; a hasty flight.
intransitive verb To run with speed; to run or move in a quick, hurried manner; to hasten away.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
noun A quick, light run.
verb intransitive To runquickly and lightly, especially in a playful manner or in an undignifiedmanner.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun rushing about hastily in an undignified way
verb to move about or proceed hurriedly
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Probably from Flemish schampeeren, frequentative of obsolete Dutch schampen, to run away, decamp, from Middle Dutch ontscampen, from Old French escamper, from Old Italian scampare, from Vulgar Latin *excampāre, from Latin ex campō, out of the field : ex, away; see ex– + campō, ablative of campus, field.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
First attested in 1687. Origin uncertain, but possibly from Dutch schamperen, from Old French escamper, from Italian scampare ("to run away").
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Examples
I've enjoyed watching this game of blog tag scamper about some of my favorite blog writers.
Bran, [423] poor fellow, lies yawning at my feet, and cannot think what is become of the daily scamper, which is all his master's inability affords him.
There's no reason why a Roman barracks should have been any different from an 18th-century European one, with entire families crammed into the neat rooms, with bunks curtained off, and the young couple in the corner on the top bunk making babies while the woman in the bottom bunk is giving birth to her fourth, and the children scamper under foot, or making themselves useful polishing kit.
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