How to Use hightail in a Sentence

hightail

verb
  • Fox hired two drivers to hightail it from the port to the festival.
    — Margaret Littman, Fortune, 24 Apr. 2020
  • Matta would have hightailed it off the floor, maybe sign an autograph or two for a kid, but no glad-handing.
    — Bill Landis, cleveland.com, 14 Mar. 2018
  • Osweiler showed his speed in escaping threats off the field by hightailing it away from the prop.
    — Ajc Homepage, ajc, 29 Mar. 2017
  • Creasy, Poe and the group are hightailing it out of the hospital when Creasy gets shot in the arm by a lone cop.
    — Lynsey Eidell, PEOPLE, 2 May 2026
  • JetBlue flight attendant quits and hightails it down the emergency slide.
    — Cnt Editors, CNT, 22 Aug. 2017
  • In the state liquor store two shops down from the ShopRite, employees saw water coming through the front door and hightailed it out the back.
    — Joseph A. Gambardello, Philly.com, 3 July 2018
  • Once Ratzinger has been elected, Bergoglio hightails it back to Argentina and never looks back.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 26 Nov. 2019
  • To cut ties with these other women and get himself out of hot water, Ko decided to hightail it out of Japan.
    — Anna Fifield, Washington Post, 6 June 2019
  • Squeeze in a stop for a quick swim at nearby Unawatuna Beach, then hightail it back to Colombo to catch your flight out.
    — Sarah Khan, Condé Nast Traveler, 16 Apr. 2018
  • Under the Congress Avenue Bridge, at dusk every night, a million bats fly out to hightail it north.
    — Paul J. Weber, chicagotribune.com, 7 Mar. 2018
  • The culprit, a 31-year-old woman, allegedly followed up on the attack by snatching the man’s phone off the table and hightailing it out of the restaurant.
    — Josh Koehn, SFChronicle.com, 4 Nov. 2019
  • Our team hightailed it to Robinson’s base in New Mexico to photograph her with one of her missiles — rather more exciting than a fashion shoot.
    — Laura Brown, Time, 26 June 2018
  • On the day of their weddings, Atoh and Atsea headed to the church to tie the knot, then hightailed it to the university, wedding gowns and all, to take their final year exam at noon.
    — Cady Lang, Time, 10 Apr. 2018
  • Yes, Tess seems to lock down an apartment and a job shockingly fast for someone who blindly hightailed it to New York without either, but that’s simply speedy storytelling.
    — refinery29.com, 1 May 2018
  • Similar in size to a briefcase or large cereal box, the satellites popped out from the rocket’s upper stage after liftoff and are hightailing it to Mars, right behind InSight.
    — Washington Post, 5 May 2018
  • Eight hours had passed since Yepez-Martinez hightailed to the roof with his wife and five children, ages 9 to 19, only to wait, rest on blankets and pace as TV helicopters buzzed above.
    — Rick Montgomery, kansascity, 22 Aug. 2017
  • The only thing left to do is cancel all of your commitments, cash in your remaining vacation days, go AWOL on adult responsibilities, and hightail it to the beach.
    — Bon Appétit, 22 Aug. 2019
  • Many execs fear that younger consumers who’ve hightailed it for the more immediate gratifications of digital media are unlikely to return to the cozy precincts of traditional TV.
    — Lara O’Reilly, WSJ, 17 Aug. 2017
  • 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
  • American collectors bought European art, and many talented American painters hightailed it to Europe at the first opportunity.
    — Susan Tallman, The Atlantic, 13 June 2026
  • Wall Street worthies, retiring boomers, and recent college graduates who may account for some of those departing millennials are among those whom various publications have described as hightailing it out of Jersey.
    — Kevin Riordan, Philly.com, 6 Oct. 2017

Some of 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.

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