SKULKING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does skulking mean? 

• SKULKING (noun)
  The noun SKULKING has 1 sense:

1. evading duty or work by pretending to be incapacitated

  Familiarity information: SKULKING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SKULKING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Evading duty or work by pretending to be incapacitated

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

malingering; skulking

Context example:

they developed a test to detect malingering

Hypernyms ("skulking" is a kind of...):

dodging; escape; evasion (nonperformance of something distasteful (as by deceit or trickery) that you are supposed to do)

Derivation:

skulk (avoid responsibilities and duties, e.g., by pretending to be ill)

 Context examples 

You'd be as rich as kings if you could find it, and you know it's here, and you stand there skulking.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I have nothing more to say, Mr. Holmes, except that I was angry with my wife that night for having held me back when I might have caught the skulking rascal.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He walked fast, hunted by his fears, chattering to himself, skulking through the less frequented thoroughfares, counting the minutes that still divided him from midnight.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The camp was suddenly discovered to be alive with skulking furry forms,—starving huskies, four or five score of them, who had scented the camp from some Indian village.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Was it a fierce tiger of crime, which could only be taken fighting hard with flashing fang and claw, or would it prove to be some skulking jackal, dangerous only to the weak and unguarded?

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)