When you skedaddle, you leave very suddenly. A kid who breaks a window with her baseball might decide to skedaddle before her neighbor comes home from work.

You might decide to skedaddle from your aunt’s party before she starts showing the slides from her vacation ten years ago, or skedaddle from the town swimming pool when it starts to rain. In either case, you’re getting out of there, and fast. Skedaddle is American Civil War military slang, dating from about 1861 — experts aren’t sure what its roots are.