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hightail

[hahy-tayl] / ˈhaɪˌteɪl /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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Roughly midway through, Pynchon’s characters hightail it all the way to proto-fascist Budapest, where shadows more lethal than any Tommy gun begin to encroach.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2025

Read on, study up, then hightail it to your nearest butcher.

From Salon ● Apr. 2, 2022

“But if not, we’ll hightail it out. We’ll get out.”

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 31, 2021

“I feel hopeful but not necessarily optimistic,” said Kimmel, who planned to hightail it out of Washington after the show.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 22, 2017

“Animals and birds hightail it outta here every May first. Wishing Day, you know.”

From "Wishtree" by Katherine Applegate

Carrillo and Peña track Gacha in Cartagena, Murphy takes steps to protect Gaviria, and Connie hightails it out of town with Elisa before her husband gets charged with treason for harboring a Communist fugitive.

From New York Times ● Aug. 30, 2015

In the show, Gallagher plays a shameless - and penniless - producer who hightails it out of Chicago after his stage version of “Joan of Arc” flops.

From Washington Times ● Mar. 13, 2015

In the show, Gallagher plays a shameless — and penniless — producer who hightails it out of Chicago after his stage version of "Joan of Arc" flops.

From US News ● Mar. 13, 2015

And then there’s the Setrakian voiceover narration at the end, which ridiculously mentions “a small world,” while the Scooby gang hightails it and tries to mentally regroup against the fiery New York skyline.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2014

“He licks that pan clean and then hightails it outta there so fast I hardly get so much as a glimpse of him.”

From "Wish" by Barbara O'Connor

I hightailed it back here, to the north shore of Hawaii, and I thought that was it.

From Fox News ● Sep. 14, 2021

Then she downed her drink and hightailed it back into the auditorium.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2019

After he hightailed it to Australia with his mistress and the couple divorced, Muriel co-founded Femina, Britain’s first feminist press.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 26, 2014

"This is my dare to be great situation," he was heard muttering, along with something about his heart and a pen, as he hightailed it out of the Cavs' facility.

From Slate ● Jun. 24, 2014

“I’m hongry. You hightailed it out of here after breakfast, and I ain’t seen hide nor hoof mark of you since.”

From "A Long Way from Chicago" by Richard Peck

The brief video ends with the deer hightailing it away from the school.

From Washington Times ● Dec. 4, 2023

The call was always in the back of Darrin Phillips’ mind, threatening to send him hightailing out of the gym to catch the next flight home.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2022

According to Altucher, the pandemic has turned Midtown into Ghost Town and sent his Wall Street buddies hightailing it for the exit, probably never to return.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 29, 2020

She’d even considered cashing out and hightailing it to a wine cave in the Loire Valley.

From Salon ● Mar. 10, 2014

I been hightailing all over these woods looking for you.

From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis




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