take a powder
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.24 in modern English
21
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
2
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
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.
American usage; Colloquial
Example Sentences
- "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.""
- "First Mrs Hitchcock packed up and took a powder, and there was hell to pay."
- "In the following game, hypermodernist Gruenfeld (Black) voluntarily suhmits to having a backward Queen Pawn-all part and parcel of the grand plan for the variation chosen. In the early sequence, however, he takes a powder. Thanks to the effort of his countryman, Galia, it explodes in his face."
- "I even talked to Charlie. When [his brother] Daniel took the powder, I called up Charlie on the phone. I thought maybe he'd want to do the right thing by me. You know, sometimes brothers feel responsible for each other."
- "Our idea was that once the storm had subsided we'd take a powder one night with our dough. . . We'd take our stuff and give ourselves a change of air. . . move to a different neighborhood."
- ""Mr. Tilton said you told him you would take a powder." "Take a powder?" said Henry. "I once heard a man from Nevada tell me he would take a powder, meaning he was leaving town.""
Usage
- American usage
- Colloquial