Definition of "skitter"

Some kinds of ducks in lighting strike the water with their tails first, and skitter along the surface for a few feet before settling down.

1882, Theodore Roosevelt, “Waterfowl”, in Hunting Trips of a Ranchman; Hunting Trips on the Prairie and in the Mountains, New York, N.Y.; London: The Co-operative Publication Society; republished as Hunting Trips of a Ranchman: Sketches of Sport on the Northern Cattle Plains, Medora edition, New York, N.Y.; London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, 1885, page 56

Both "Dark Snow" and "Aurelia" [by AFI] feature subtle washes of brittle piano à la Decemberunderground, while "She Speaks The Language" boasts a skittering electronic underbelly, and eerie synths are suspended like low clouds in "Above The Bridge."

2017 January 20, Annie Zaleski, “AFI Sounds Refreshed and Rejuvenated on Its 10th Album, AFI (The Blood Album)”, in The A.V. Club‎

"Skittering," continued the Professor, "is practiced with a strong line about the length of the rod, to which is affixed a small trolling-spoon, a minnow, or a piece of pork-rind cut in the rude semblance of a small fish. The boat is poled along, as in ‘bobbing,’ but farther out in the stream, when the angler, standing in the bow, ‘skitters’ or skips the spoon or bait over the surface just at the edge of the weeds.

1883, James A[lexander] Henshall, “Black Bass Fishing”, in Alfred M[arshall] Mayer, editor, Sport with Gun and Rod in American Woods and Waters, New York, N.Y.: The Century Company, page 394

I had seen an aerial helix of raptors, hawks and harriers riding a thermal, and below them a skitter of ringed plover and other waders, together with more kingfishers than I had ever seen before.

1976 June 3, John Hillaby, “Out and About: Firebird”, in Bernard Dixon, editor, New Scientist, volume 70, number 1003, London: New Science Publications, page 543, column 1

Each day that I went, he stood off by himself, in solitude, came politely to the tee on his own, whacked to the right and left in a skitter of balls, his hair pinched in a clubhouse golf cap that didn't fit, his mouth in grim determination to not make an utter fool of himself, his golf clubs' vinyl bag with the ticket attached to signal his beginner's fees were paid.

2003, David Adams Richards, River of the Brokenhearted, Toronto, Ont.: Doubleday Canada; 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Arcade Publishing, 2004, pages 298–299

With a skitter of excitement, Marcy glanced at the clock on the parlor mantel. It chimed ten, and her gaze flicked to the face of her husband as he lounged in his favorite chair with a newspaper in his lap.

2010, Julie Lessman, A Hope Undaunted: A Novel (Winds of Change; 1), Grand Rapids, Mich.: Revell Books, Baker Publishing Group, pages 213–214

"[…] I'd like you to give the calves two heaped tablespoonfuls [of Epsom salts] three times a day." / "Oh 'ell, you'll skitter the poor buggers to death!" / "Maybe so, but there's nothing else for it," I said.

1970, James Herriot [pseudonym; James Alfred Wight], If Only They Could Talk, London: Michael Joseph

As a symptomatic phenomenon, Diarrhœa is skittering, i.e., the discharges are composed of water, intermingled with particles of imperfectly digested food; from two to six or eight discharges may thus take place, and it is an invariable precursor of constipation.

1875 August 3, Thomas Walley, “The Differentiation in the Characters and Symptoms of Gastro-intestinal Affections”, in George Fleming, editor, The Veterinary Journal and Annals of Comparative Pathology, volume I, London: Baillière, Tindall & Cox, King William Street, Strand [et al.], published October 1875, page 244

And when health problems struck, as they inevitably would, no matter how attentive the farmer, the tree had to be nursed until it was better. […] Jeez, and I'd thought mothering week-old orphan calves back in Scotland had been a headache! Still, at least a tree couldn't skitter diarrhoea down the front of your jeans, or bellow to be bucket-fed warm milk in the middle of the night, so that was a bonus.

2001, Peter Kerr, “Wood for Thought”, in Mañana, Mañana: One Mallorcan Summer, Chichester, West Sussex: Summersdale Publishers

I can't give it my immediate attention, as the cow has the skitter (diarrhoea) and I'm waiting on the Vit (vet).

2013, Cathal McCosker, “Wild Men Appear”, in Man Up and Paddle!: A Wild and Dangerous Circumnavigation around Ireland, [Morrisville, N.C.?]: Lulu, page 43

Shaking but making herself stand there while skitter ran down the inside of her legs. She learnt German early from Anna. Durchfall easier to spell than Diarrhoea. Falling liquid brown.

2014, Mango Gorman, “God Demands a Holocaust”, in Bone and Blood: A Berlin Novel, Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire: Matador, page 56