How to Use skitter in a Sentence

skitter

verb
  • Mice skittered across the floor.
  • Dry leaves skittered over the sidewalk.
  • No one loves to see dust bunnies skittering across the floor.
    — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 20 Nov. 2025
  • Tiny crabs skitter the shoreline.
    — Ryan Ballogg updated February 26, Miami Herald, 26 Feb. 2026
  • An ammo clip for the rifle skittered across the floor, a kid told me.
    — Special To The Oregonian, OregonLive.com, 20 May 2018
  • But if the metal is hot, the droplets will skitter around like deranged dancers.
    — Sophie Bushwick, Discover Magazine, 25 July 2012
  • Iguanas skittered across the dirt; birds and insects filled the air with noise.
    — Brigid Washington, Travel + Leisure, 6 Apr. 2026
  • But if skittered out of bounds, allowing the Chiefs to keep the ball.
    — Sean Gregory, Time, 3 Feb. 2020
  • Larger-than life bugs seem to be caught in the act of skittering across a canvas.
    — Marissa Fessenden, Smithsonian, 25 Apr. 2017
  • Gu skittered off the first rail and toppled to her side, dashing her title hopes.
    — Joseph Wilson, Chicago Tribune, 9 Feb. 2026
  • Flocks of snow buntings skitter across the sand, rising in confetti clouds.
    — Literary Hub, 4 Nov. 2025
  • Animals live their lives, skittering about in search of food.
    — Andrew Webster, The Verge, 29 Aug. 2018
  • Normally this kind of thing would startle me, if not send me skittering across the street.
    — Jessie Sholl, The Cut, 14 May 2018
  • But soon after, the bison turned around and ran toward Reinke, who skittered away.
    — Elizabeth Zwirz, Fox News, 23 Aug. 2018
  • Ahead of me, five more disembodied beams skittered across the snow, each emitting from the skiers ahead of me.
    — Tim Neville, Travel + Leisure, 27 Jan. 2026
  • Ahead of me, five more disembodied beams skittered across the snow, each emitting from the skiers ahead of me.
    — Tim Neville, Travel + Leisure, 29 Dec. 2023
  • Jon stayed focused, though, and noticed the line had broken at the reel—and that the loose end was skittering across the ice.
    — Jordan Rodriguez, Idaho Statesman, 26 Jan. 2024
  • Smaller critters — hermit crabs, lightning whelks and snails — skittered along the seafloor.
    — Max Chesnes, The Orlando Sentinel, 6 Feb. 2026
  • You will be surrounded by bay laurel and sage, and may see lizards skittering on the ground and hawks circling above.
    — Charles Fleming, latimes.com, 12 July 2019
  • Talking to him can feel like skittering around a galaxy of Wikipedia wormholes (in a good way).
    — Rachel Connolly, New York Times, 22 Apr. 2023
  • My nights were filled with the thumping of someone else’s dirty clothes and the feeling of something skittering across my leg.
    — Literary Hub, 16 Jan. 2026
  • The past year has been tough for the Bay Area, as thousands of layoffs skittered across the region.
    — Ryan MacAsero, The Mercury News, 11 June 2024
  • Her characters skitter along in language, rarely lighting on anything for long.
    — Hilton Als, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025
  • On the rare occasions a teammate passed him the ball, Knueppel would duck and let the ball skitter out of bounds.
    — Scott Fowler, Charlotte Observer, 8 Apr. 2026
  • Inch-long cricket frogs also seem to skitter over the surface of water with physics-defying grace.
    — Rohini Subrahmanyam, Scientific American, 30 Jan. 2025
  • Somewhere in the distance, animals skitter and howl, unseen but heard.
    — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 9 Jan. 2026
  • Somewhere in the distance, animals skitter and howl, unseen but heard.
    — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 16 Jan. 2026
  • But Pastrnak had already headed up ice and the puck skittered into no-man’s land.
    — Steve Conroy, Boston Herald, 24 Dec. 2025
  • Ice crystals skittered across the plateau, catching in the curve of the sastrugi before blowing free.
    — Cree Lefavour, New Yorker, 7 Mar. 2026
  • Rolling in and out of corners, scuffing and skittering on the summer sport tires, the big car’s body motions are well damped and dead steady.
    — Dan Neil, WSJ, 9 Mar. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'skitter.' 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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