scuttle
/ˈskʌt.l̩/ verb C2- To cut a hole or holes through the bottom, deck, or sides of (as of a ship), for any purpose.
- To deliberately sink one's ship or boat by any means, usually by order of the vessel's commander or owner. · The Vichy French fleet in Toulon in 1942 scuttled itself as a final "fuck you" to the invading Germans.
- To deliberately wreck one's vehicle (of any sort).
- To undermine or thwart oneself or one's position or property, especially deliberately. · The candidate had scuttled his chances with his unhinged outburst.
He/she/it scuttles · Past scuttled · Past participle scuttled · -ing form scuttling
Verb forms
- Base form
- scuttle
- He/she/it
- scuttles
- Past
- scuttled
- Past participle
- scuttled
- -ing form
- scuttling
From the library
But with me there is a limit, and when I find a man who keeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece, then I begin to give myself virtuous airs.
He looked round him at the scientific charts upon the wall, the acid-charred bench of chemicals, the violin-case leaning in the corner, the coal-scuttle, which contained of old the pipes and tobacco.
Other matches
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