scamper

• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈskæmpə/

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

• (General American, without æ-raising) IPA^(key): /ˈskæmpɚ/
  • (æ-raising) IPA^(key): /ˈskeə̯mpɚ/, /ˈskɛə̯mpɚ/

    • Audio:

      (file)

• Rhymes: -æmpə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: scamp‧er

First attested in 1687. Origin uncertain, but possibly from Dutch schamperen, from Old French escamper, from Vulgar Latin *excampāre.

scamper (plural scampers)

1. A quick, light run.

scamper (third-person singular simple present scampers, present participle scampering, simple past and past participle scampered)

1. (intransitive) To run lightly and quickly, especially in a playful or undignified manner.

   Synonyms: scurry; see also Thesaurus:walk

   The dog scampered after the squirrel.

   • 1791 (first performance), [Frederic] Reynolds, Notoriety: A Comedy, Dublin: […] P. Byrne, […], published 1792, →OCLC, Act IV, scene [i], page 43:

     [W]hy if you don't ſcamper, you'll be baſtil'd, before you can ſay, "Killarney."

   • 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 198:

     And so saying he scampered off to the hill, to the amusement of honest Plat; and it is likely lost no time in making his advances to the young widow.

   • 1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as chapter 1, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, June 1914, →OCLC:

     The younger and lighter members of his tribe scampered to the higher branches of the great trees to escape his wrath; risking their lives upon branches that scarce supported their weight rather than face old Kerchak in one of his fits of uncontrolled anger.

   • 2017 June 3, Daniel Taylor, “Real Madrid win Champions League as Cristiano Ronaldo double defeats Juve”, in The Guardian (London)‎^[1]:

     Three minutes later, Luka Modric scampered down the right, clipped a cross to the near post and Ronaldo’s clipped finish gave the remainder of the match an air of inevitability.

From scamp + -er.

scamper (plural scampers)

1. One who skimps or does slipshod work.

   Synonym: skimper

• Campers, campers