1. To hide or to move secretly or without being noticed; especially, when someone is planning to do something bad: Jane saw a man skulking around outside her house in the dark; so, she called the police.
2. To hide because of cowardice or a bad conscience: Isaac said that he would skulk in a corner and feel very sorry for himself if he were to encounter any kind of disaster.
3. Etymology: from Middle English of Scandinavian origin. In Norwegian skulka, "lurk" ("to sneak" "to exist unobserved") and Danish skulke, Swedish skoika, "to shirk" ("to avoid").