Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
intj
An imperative demand to leave, often understood by speaker and listener as impertinent.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: colloquial
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A tax; tribute.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A land-tax paid in the Shetland Islands.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Shetland
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Animal excrement; droppings, dung.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Topics: biology, natural-sciences
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Heroin.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, slang, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Whiskey.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Coprophilia, scatophilia.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, slang, uncountable
Topics: lifestyle, media, pornography, sexuality
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A blow; a hit, an impact.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncommon
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A brisk shower of rain, driven by the wind.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, dialectal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Scat singing.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Qualifier: jazz
Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, music
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Any fish in the family Scatophagidae.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To sing an improvised melodic solo using nonsense syllables, often onomatopoeic or imitative of musical instruments.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Qualifier: jazz
Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, music
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To leave quickly.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: colloquial
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
singing jazz; the singer substitutes nonsense syllables for the words of the song and tries to sound like a musical instrument
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: scat singing
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: singing, vocalizing, jazz
verb
flee; take to one's heels; cut and run
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: run, scarper, turn tail, lam, run away, hightail it, bunk, head for the hills, take to the woods, escape, fly the coop, break away
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: leave, go forth, go away
Narrower terms: flee, fly, take flight, skedaddle
History
Mid 19th century: * perhaps an abbreviation of scatter. * perhaps representing a hiss followed by the word cat. Compare Swedish schas (“shoo, begone”). * Alternatively, from the expression quicker than scat (“in a great hurry”), * Possibly from scoot, from the root of shoot.
From Middle English scet, schat, from Old English sċeatt (“property, goods”) and Old Norse skattr (“wealth, treaure”); both from Proto-Germanic *skattaz (“cattle, kine, wealth”), from Proto-Indo-European *skatn-, *skat- (“to jump, skip, splash out”). Cognate with Scots scat (“tax, levy, charge, payment, bribe”), West Frisian skat (“treasure, darling”), Dutch schat (“treasure, hoard, darling, sweetheart”), German Schatz (“treasure, hoard, wealth, store, darling, sweetheart”), Swedish skatt (“treasure, tax, duty”), Icelandic skattur (“tax, tribute”), Latin scateō (“gush, team, bubble forth, abound”).
Origin uncertain. Both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster suggest derivation from Ancient Greek σκῶρ (skôr, “excrement”), compare English scato-, but Random House Dictionary suggests that the popular character of the word makes this unlikely. Perhaps from English dialectal scat (“to scatter, fling, bespatter”), or an alteration of shit, which is also used for "drugs, heroin".
Uncertain. The OED, which connects the senses "blow" and "shower" only tentatively, suggests that at least the former might be onomatopoeia. Dialectally, the word can also refer to "a spell" of any kind of weather, e.g. "a scat of fine weather", "a scat of frost".
1920s, probably imitative.
From the taxonomic name of the family.
Across languages
16 source translations are retained for this English entry.
