scarper v : flee; take to one's heels; cut and run; "If you see this man, run!"; "The burglars escaped before the police showed up" [syn: run, turn tail, lam, run away, hightail it, bunk, head for the hills, take to the woods, escape, fly the coop, break away]

English

Etymology

In Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor (vol 3 1851) there is a chapter on "Punch Talk" (basically the slang language used by travelling Italian Punch and Judy men and entertainers). This slang contains English, Italian, Jewish and traveller roots. In Punch Talk, "To get away quickly" (e.g., from the police or authority) is spoken and written as "scarper". This comes from the Italian scappare, escappare (compare English escape).

An alternative etymology traces the word "scarper" to the Cockney rhyming slang Scapa flow, that is, go (as in, e.g., "go away").

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɑː(r)pə(r)

Verb

1. (British slang) To run away; to flee; to escape.

Quotations

• 2007, The Guardian, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,2132043,00.html

  Helm writes: 'As if she were some street criminal, ready to scarper, Ruth's home was swooped upon by [Assistant Commissioner John] Yates's men and she was forced to dress in the presence of a female police officer.