slink

Kantenga laughed when I posed it to him, saying his usual gut reaction to the question is to slink away like the meme of Homer Simpson retreating into the bushes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

"I tried to slink away and he was reeling me back," Annie says.

From BBC ● Mar. 30, 2025

Here, slender salamanders slink through the leaf litter under robust stands of Santa Cruz Island buckwheat and California fuchsia.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2024

A national punchline, Garvey was forced to slink out of the limelight.

From Slate ● May 29, 2024

In the end Bernard had to slink back, diminished, to his rooms and inform the impatient assembly that the Savage would not be appearing that evening.

From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

He slinks along a wall, scales a cliff, navigates drain pipes and leaps up and down from his preferred perch—behind the left shoulder of Din Djarin, aka the Mandalorian warrior.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

These days, he says, if the doorbell rings unexpectedly, the whole household snaps into survival mode — lights off, bodies flattened behind the couch, everyone holding their breath until the offending visitor slinks away.

From Salon ● Dec. 2, 2025

Tara just slinks away into a depressive state that barely anyone notices.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 30, 2024

A bent synth chord slinks around for a solid three minutes, building a mood for her lyrics about resilience and rebirth.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2023

“I’ll be fine,” she says, dropping a pile of black T-shirts in the bag and standing there with folded arms until he slinks out.

From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline

German carp slank into his yard, began to feed upon the carrots, the asparagus.

From Time Magazine Archive

First the buttons: thack-thack; then the lever: slank.

From Time Magazine Archive

Dr. Merrick took them up, and slank noiselessly from the room, murmuring as he went some inarticulate words to the effect that he had only desired to serve her.

From The Woman Who Did by Grant Allen

Ten minutes later Hank put up his hand and slank in behind a thick mass of underwood.

From A Boy of the Dominion A Tale of Canadian Immigration by F. S. (Frederick Sadleir) Brereton

In an evil hour for his own chances Joe Harley chose that worse counsel, and slank off in his familiar crouching fashion towards the opposite corner of the copse.

From Strange Stories by Grant Allen

Afterward, with the help of remaining friends, he slunk off to the U.S. in 1876, where he taught in Massachusetts for a while, then took up as a freelance newspaper writer in Chicago.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025

Naomi, held on a leash by student Trinity Astilla, was the picture of lithe, feline elegance as she slunk around a dusty enclosure, briefly hopping atop her crate — but not into it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 11, 2025

This is what first slunk out of Paul’s imagination: “A man dressed as a bat sitting in a hot tub full of mashed potatoes.”

From Slate ● Feb. 4, 2025

Indexes were close to flat early in the day, but slunk lower after the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its last policy meeting.

From Seattle Times ● May 23, 2024

I scrubbed the grass off my shins, rinsed off at warp 9, then grabbed my borrowed towel and slunk out of the shower.

From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram

The hush-hush raves that require knowing someone and slinking into condemned warehouses have always happened alongside parties thrown by big-name promoters.

From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026

The album was “Transference,” its cover a grainy seventies tableau — a boy slinking low in a golden wingback chair, viridian curtains pooling behind him, a table lamp casting an almost aggressively orange glow.

From Salon ● Dec. 30, 2025

“Water,” the Johannesburg native’s smash 2023 single, is feather-light and elegant, slinking around a deft amapiano beat .

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2024

K-Ming Chang’s taut novella “Cecilia” explores the intensity of desire by slinking along the razor-thin line between love and obsession, between the desire to cuddle someone or consume them.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 3, 2024

Should Naima paint a crocodile slinking through lily pads?

From "Rickshaw Girl" by Mitali Perkins