Library / English Dictionary

SCUTTLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

An entrance equipped with a hatch; especially a passageway between decks of a ship

Synonyms:

hatchway; opening; scuttle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

entrance; entranceway; entree; entry; entryway (something that provides access (to get in or get out))

Meronyms (parts of "scuttle"):

hatch (a movable barrier covering a hatchway)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "scuttle"):

escape hatch (hatchway that provides a means of escape in an emergency)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Container for coal; shaped to permit pouring the coal onto the fire

Synonyms:

coal scuttle; scuttle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

container (any object that can be used to hold things (especially a large metal boxlike object of standardized dimensions that can be loaded from one form of transport to another))

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

To move about or proceed hurriedly

Example:

so terrified by the extraordinary ebbing of the sea that they scurried to higher ground

Synonyms:

scamper; scurry; scuttle; skitter

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "scuttle" is one way to...):

run (move fast by using one's feet, with one foot off the ground at any given time)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "scuttle"):

crab (scurry sideways like a crab)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Credits

 Context examples: 

How many it had cost in the amassing, what blood and sorrow, what good ships scuttled on the deep, what brave men walking the plank blindfold, what shot of cannon, what shame and lies and cruelty, perhaps no man alive could tell.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

And at this moment Latimer called down the scuttles: Hump! The old man wants you!

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

“Trying to scuttle my ship for me?”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

“Softly, now,” Wolf Larsen warned me in a whisper, as he doubled his body into the forecastle scuttle and prepared to descend.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Leach was the last to go, falling sheer back from the top of the scuttle and striking on head and shoulders upon his sprawling mates beneath.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The sailors assembled in a fearful group just outside the forecastle scuttle and watched and listened.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But the man never turned, and, after stretching his arms above his head and yawning audibly, he retraced his steps to the forecastle scuttle and disappeared.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

“What ho! below there!” I heard Latimer shout down the scuttle, too cautious to descend into the inferno of passion he could hear raging beneath him in the darkness.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I came upon Kelly crouching to the lee of the forecastle scuttle, his head on his knees, his arms about his head, in an attitude of unutterable despondency.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But his pursuers forestalling him, he doubled back across the cabin, passed over the galley, and gained the deck by means of the steerage-scuttle.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)