skedaddler

[ ski-dad-ler ]

noun

, Informal.

1. a person or thing that skedaddles.
2. Canadian. a U.S. citizen who fled to Canada rather than serve in the armed forces during the American Civil War.

Word History and Origins

Origin of skedaddler¹

An Americanism dating back to 1860–65; skedaddle + -er ¹

Example Sentences

Perhaps the only souvenir of refugee and "skedaddler" life abroad during the war ever published, its preservation may one day be useful in the socialistic archives of the South, to whose posterity slavery will seem almost a mythical thing.

From Project Gutenberg