hightail

/ˈhaɪ.teɪl/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.75 in modern English

Scrabble Score

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Meaning

verb

Canadian usage; American usage; Informal; Transitive verb

"He hightailed it toward town."
"I want you to hightail your butt out of there before they come back."
"When I saw he had scored, I just hightailed out of there, because all those people started running down on the field and that's a lot more dangerous than playing."

From high + tail; refers to the behavior of fleeing animals, such as deer, that raise their tail when running away.

hightails (present, singular) hightailing (participle, present) hightailed (participle, past) hightailed (past)

hightail it

Questions

How do you pronounce hightail?

The recorded pronunciation is /ˈhaɪ.teɪl/.

What does hightail mean?

To move at full speed, especially in retreat.

Where does hightail come from?

How to pronounce hightail

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “hightail”.

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