skulker
(ˈskʌlkə(r))
Also 4, 6 sculker(e, 4 scolker, 5 sculcare, Sc. scoukar.
[f. prec. + -er1. Cf. MSw. skulkare, Norw. skulkar.]
1. One who skulks, in various senses. † Also as a name for the hare.
| 13.. Names of Hare in MS. Digby 168 b, Þe wint-swifft, þe sculkere, Þe hare-serd, þe heg roukere. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VII. 491 He haþ wiþ hym flemed men and scolkers aboute. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 3119 Than skyftes þes skouerours,..Diskoueres for skulkers that they no skathe lymppene. c 1470 Henry Wallace ix. 180 Skour weyll about for scoukaris in the se. c 1530 Pore Helpe 384 in Hazl. E.P.P. III. 266 A man that wyl not vary, And one that is no sculker. 1728 Wodrow Corr. (1843) III. 401 The numbers that are for laying him aside.., too often hedgers and skulkers. 1800 Coleridge Wallenstein i. vii, Did we confine thee not to let that skulker..pass the gates of Pilsen! 1841 C. Mackay Pop. Delusions II. 30 He..was now a solitary skulker in the forests. 1870 Dickens E. Drood xv, It's good advice, whichever of you skulkers gave it. |
b. spec. (See quot. 1785.)
| 1785 Grose Dict. Vulgar T., Skulker, a soldier who by feigned sickness or other pretences evades his duty, a sailor who keeps below in time of danger [etc.]. 1826 Hutchison Pract. Obs. Surg. 191 The plan I adopted, when serving afloat, to lessen the sick list of sculkers, as they are technically termed in the navy. 1887 Spectator 9 July 932/1 Serjeant Lawrence..was particularly hard on skulkers. |
2. A moth, Graphiphora latens.
| 1832 Rennie Butterfl. & Moths 54 The Sculker..appears in summer. Rare. South of Scotland. |
3. Ornith. (See quots.)
| 1867 H. Spencer Princ. Biol. vi. viii. §349 ‘Skulkers’ is the descriptive title applied to the Water-Rail, the Corn-Crake, and their allies, which evade enemies by concealment. 1872 Coues N. Amer. Birds 241 Their shy retiring habit of skulking among the rushes has caused them to be sometimes called Latitores (skulkers). |