vamoose

English

Etymology

Alteration of Spanish vamos (“we go”) or vámonos (“let's go”). Cognate with English namous.

Pronunciation

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Verb

vamoose (third-person singular simple present vamooses, present participle vamoosing, simple past and past participle vamoosed)

1. (transitive, intransitive, slang) To run away (from); to flee.
   • 1905, Wisconsin Alumni Magazine, volume 7, page 218:

     Speaking of the room in which I locked McIndoe — I will preface by saying that Mac "vamoosed that ranch" that very day and left me alone.

   • 2015, Good-Feel, Yoshi's Woolly World, Wii U, Nintendo, level name:

     World 6-3: Vamoose the Lava Sluice!

2. (intransitive, slang) To hurry.
   • 1958 December 24, “'Sundown' Policy Is Alleged”, in The World‎^[1], Coos Bay, Oregon, sourced from United Press, via Newspapers.com, page 2:

     Some members of civil rights organizations present said they have heard that Negroes seeking housing in the [sundown] towns had been intimidated and that 'vamoose' warnings have been in vogue for the past year.

   • 1966, Lita Grey Chaplin, Morton Cooper, My Life with Chaplin, New York: B. Geis Associates, →ISBN, page 190:

     He's got a wife who'll never give him a divorce. She knows about me, but it's still understood that when she decides to go to the ranch for a week or a weekend, I've got to vamoose.

   • 1992, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, “A Fistful of Datas”, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 6, episode 8:

     "Vamoose, you little varmint."

Alternative forms

• vamos, vamoosh, vamose, vamous, vamouse

Synonyms

• (to run away): See Thesaurus:flee
• (to hurry): See Thesaurus:rush

Translations

to run away, to flee

• Bulgarian: офейквам (bg) (ofejkvam)
• French: tracer (fr) (slang), bouger (fr) (slang), se barrer (fr) (slang), se casser (fr) (slang), se tirer (fr) (slang), dégager (fr) (slang)
• Georgian: გაქცევა (gakceva), მოცოცხვა (mococxva), აბარგება (ka) (abargeba)
• German: abhauen (de), fliehen (de)

to hurry

• French: tracer (fr) (slang), bouger (fr) (slang), grouiller (fr) (slang), se magner (fr) (slang)
• German: beeilen (de), huddeln (slang)