Scarper:
to leave very quickly, often to avoid getting into trouble:
The police are coming! We’d better scarper. [Cambridge Dictionary]
Ah. I’d seen the word before, but never acquired the precise definition. I wonder as to etymology. Noted in “August 8, 2024,” Heather Cox Richardson, Letters From An American:
The plumbers burglarized the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist in California, hoping to find something to discredit him, then moved on to bigger targets. Together with the Committee to Re-elect the President (fittingly dubbed CREEP as its activities became known), they planted fake letters in newspapers declaring support for Nixon and hatred for his opponents, spied on Democrats, and hired vendors for Democratic rallies and then scarpered on the bills. Finally, they set out to wiretap the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, in the fashionable Watergate office complex.
CREEP member Roger Stone memorably described himself, in connection with this work, as a ratfucker.
