hightails (it)

verb

present tense third-person singular of hightail (it)
as in flees
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 hightails (it)
  1. flees
  2. retreats
  3. flies
  4. bolts
  5. runs
  6. runs away
  7. runs off
  8. escapes
Verb
  • Jaros and Rauh calculate that the state will lose money so long as 24 percent of the tax base flees, a condition that’s already been met.
    — Ramesh Ponnuru, Washington Post, 27 Oct. 2026
  • Moss flees across the Mexican border, hiding the money along the bank of the Rio Grande before winding up in a Mexican hospital.
    — Frannie Comstock, Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Oct. 2026
Definition of flees
Verb
  • Retreats from early-childhood care The Goldwyn closure comes as another major Los Angeles institution retreats from providing care.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2026
  • Meanwhile, Mercury stations retrograde in Scorpio and Venus retreats into Libra, joining Saturn retrograde in Aries, Uranus in Gemini, and Neptune in Aries.
    — Lisa Stardust, Vogue, 23 Oct. 2026
Definition of retreats
Verb
  • The next big test will be the demonstration flight of a Long March 10A rocket, which flies with a single core booster, and China’s new Mengzhou Moon ship to low-Earth orbit in early 2027.
    — Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 6 Nov. 2026
  • But in a town of heavyweight food and beverage brands from Chick-fil-A to Coca-Cola, Chicken Salad Chick still flies a bit under the radar, said its chief executive.
    — Amy Wenk, AJC.com, 3 Nov. 2026
Definition of flies
Verb
  • Then, the unit bolts to the van, becoming a secure load that happens to contain a full living suite.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 20 Aug. 2026
  • When a company bolts AI on without building it into the way the company works, the company can end up paying a great deal of money for a capability its competitors already share.
    — Mohamed Khater, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2026
Definition of bolts
Verb
  • Hudson runs House Republicans’ campaign arm and was projected to keep his seat leading into Election Day.
    — David Sivak, The Washington Examiner, 4 Nov. 2026
  • Musk, who runs both firms, was poised to become one of the biggest beneficiaries of Republican victories and spent hundreds of millions of dollars in support of GOP candidates.
    — Steve Kopack, NBC news, 4 Nov. 2026
Definition of runs
Verb
  • Musically gifted teenager Rokas, runs away from his mafia family to use music as a way to take revenge on his father, responsible for his mother’s death.
    — Annika Pham, Variety, 19 Oct. 2026
  • When Carla and Johnny get there, Gabe literally runs away from them, but Johnny tackles him.
    — Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of runs away
Verb
  • Shadab completed his century by playing a late cut off Atkinson for his 12th boundary before hitting the fast bowler over long off for a six to reduce the target to three runs off the final three overs.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 25 Oct. 2026
  • It's pulled this off by ditching the bulky battery that every other vest comes with, and runs off power from your phone instead.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of runs off
Verb
  • As the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics explains, energy confinement time describes how quickly thermal energy escapes from the plasma, rather than how long an experiment runs.
    — Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 31 Oct. 2026
  • The host enters the water, where the worm escapes from its body and begins the next stage of its life cycle.
    — Tara Deans, The Conversation, 30 Oct. 2026
Definition of escapes
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

hightail (it)
hightails (it)
high-tech
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Hightails (it).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hightails%20%28it%29. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

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

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of valorous

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

31 Useful Rhetorical Devices

More Commonly Misspelled Words

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

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Longest Long Words List

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
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
woman sitting on floor holding book in front of her face on pink background
Famous Novels, Last Lines Quiz Needless to say, spoiler alert.
See All