hightailing (it)

verb

present participle of hightail (it)
as in fleeing
to hasten away from something dangerous or frightening when a fight broke out, we hightailed it out of the bar

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for hightailing (it)
  1. fleeing
  2. retreating
  3. flying
  4. bolting
  5. running away
  6. running off
  7. running
  8. bugging out
Verb
  • More than 500 people fleeing violence in Myanmar are feared dead after two boats disappeared in rough conditions off the country’s coast, according to two UN migration bodies.
    — Lex Harvey, CNN Money, 16 July 2026
  • In 1994 Goma and surrounding areas received hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing from the genocide and subsequent military operations that occurred in Rwanda that year, leading to a humanitarian crisis.
    — Chinatsu Tsuji, Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 July 2026
Definition of fleeing
Verb
  • Cardinal and Lilly also set fresh record closes last week, before retreating modestly, as J & J has, in recent sessions.
    — Natasha Abellard, CNBC, 14 July 2026
  • And larger investors were already retreating from the single-family market.
    — Samantha Delouya, CNN Money, 11 July 2026
Definition of retreating
Verb
  • After flying toward a naval target over the Black Sea, the aircraft launched one of the supersonic missiles from a stand-off distance exceeding 120 kilometers, successfully destroying its target.
    — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 14 July 2026
  • The Piper Tomahawk had been taken on a test flight by a flying instructor in his 20s after a part was replaced on the plane, the airline said.
    — Charlotte Reck, CNN Money, 14 July 2026
Definition of flying
Verb
  • Timing your planting to avoid summer heat will prevent bolting.
    — Samantha Johnson, Martha Stewart, 7 July 2026
  • Many brands expand into experiences once product growth slows, bolting hospitality or lifestyle onto an existing business model.
    — Kate Hardcastle, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
Definition of bolting
Verb
  • On Saturday, July 4, the Kansas City, Kansas, Fire Department rescued a dog that had fallen into a well after running away scared from the sound of fireworks.
    — Emily Harter, Kansas City Star, 6 July 2026
  • Crews were back out on Saturday to search for a man who Elgin police said was running away with a large knife and went into the Fox River after an incident Friday morning.
    — Elyssa Kaufman, CBS News, 27 June 2026
Definition of running away
Verb
  • But so a modern car, like a Bronco, the powertrain’s running off electronics, right?
    — Joel Feder, The Drive, 1 July 2026
  • Manchester United’s Matheus Cunha is another right-footed left-winger, but is charged with partnering an overlapping full-back and running off central midfield tempo-setters such as Bruno Fernandes.
    — Cerys Jones, New York Times, 29 June 2026
Definition of running off
Verb
  • Compared with a commercial GPU running the same image-denoising task, the optical system delivered more than a hundred times faster inference while using only about one-ninth of the computational resources.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 13 July 2026
  • What can go wrong in the aorta The aorta is the body's largest artery, running from the heart down through the chest and abdomen.
    — Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News, 13 July 2026
Definition of running
Verb
  • There’s a wonderful small moment midway through the season where Reilly’s lightly bugging out in his dingy apartment, shaking out his limbs at sharp, insectile angles to get comfortable.
    — Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 26 May 2026
  • Her baby's father answered the door with his eyes bugging out, and Frierson barged in to find two other guys, needles, spoons and powder on the table.
    — Brad Schmitt, The Tennessean, 21 Aug. 2025
Definition of bugging out
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

hightailed (it)
hightailing (it)
hightail (it)
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Hightailing (it).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hightailing%20%28it%29. Accessed 16 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of bibelot

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

The Longest Long Words List

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
child-detective
Spot the Misspelled Word July 2026 Those little red underlines can't help you now...
See All