hightailed; hightailing; hightails
: to move at full speed or rapidly often in making a retreat
—usually used with it
hightailed it out of there
Synonyms
Examples of hightail in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
According to Postal Service data crunched by the real estate firm CBRE, those who picked up stakes during the pandemic were less likely to hightail to the hinterlands than to move to neighboring, less-dense cities, slightly farther from the downtown core.
—
Aarian Marshall, Wired, 29 Apr. 2021
Huck’s instinct is to hightail it out of there.
—Tim Parks, The New York Review of Books, 10 July 2020
Seeking solace and a renewal of her seasonal spirit, Angelina and her firecracker assistant Monique (Zenzi Williams) hightail it to upstate New York.
—Courtney Howard, Variety, 17 Nov. 2022
But a woman — and all the women in the audience — will endorse her decision to hightail it in the opposite direction.
—Peter Debruge, Variety, 9 May 2022
Families with little kids often hightail it out, but the native of Spain wanted to settle down in a walkable city with a European flair.
—Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle, 8 Dec. 2021
Additionally, this totalitarian system produces only poverty and hunger, and these poor, hungry people hightail it to the United States.
—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 19 Apr. 2021
Fox hired two drivers to hightail it from the port to the festival.
—Margaret Littman, Fortune, 24 Apr. 2020
Once Ratzinger has been elected, Bergoglio hightails it back to Argentina and never looks back.
—Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 26 Nov. 2019
Aarian Marshall, Wired, 29 Apr. 2021
Huck’s instinct is to hightail it out of there.
—Tim Parks, The New York Review of Books, 10 July 2020
Seeking solace and a renewal of her seasonal spirit, Angelina and her firecracker assistant Monique (Zenzi Williams) hightail it to upstate New York.
—Courtney Howard, Variety, 17 Nov. 2022
But a woman — and all the women in the audience — will endorse her decision to hightail it in the opposite direction.
—Peter Debruge, Variety, 9 May 2022
Families with little kids often hightail it out, but the native of Spain wanted to settle down in a walkable city with a European flair.
—Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle, 8 Dec. 2021
Additionally, this totalitarian system produces only poverty and hunger, and these poor, hungry people hightail it to the United States.
—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 19 Apr. 2021
Fox hired two drivers to hightail it from the port to the festival.
—Margaret Littman, Fortune, 24 Apr. 2020
Once Ratzinger has been elected, Bergoglio hightails it back to Argentina and never looks back.
—Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 26 Nov. 2019
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hightail.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near hightail
Cite this Entry
“Hightail.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hightail. Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.
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