Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a rush, a hurry; an act of running away or escaping.

1861		Winstead (MN) Herald 1 Nov. n.p.: The New York Evening Post defines the word ‘Skadaddle’ [...] as meaning ‘runaway’.
1863		Army Police Record in Annals of the Army of the Cumberland 602: He ran off at the time of the general ‘skedaddle,’ and is now a fugitive.
1871		John O’Groat Jrnl 11 May 2/3: It then became a complete case of skedaddle. ‘Scatter, boys!’ used to be the word when the Fenian ‘army’ fell in with any red-coats.
1874		Baker Ismailia 211: Their noisy drums had ceased, and suddenly I perceived a general skedaddle [F&H].
1882		G.A. Sala in Living London (1883) Mar. 115: To the American Civil War the Lingua Balatronica owes the revival, if not the invention, of ‘skeddaddle’.
1892		Century mag. (NY) Apr. 954: The defenders of old Virginia [...] not infrequently by force of circumstances were induced to take their turn in a more or less graceful ‘skedaddle’.
1901		Marvel XV:388 Apr. 11: This was a signal for a skedaddle, and away flew our friends.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 14 Feb. 4/6: [headline] Sensational Skedoodle. A Midnight Flit.
1942		Whizzbang Comics 41: I will [...] wait until zey have done-a ze skedaddle!
1950		L.T. Milic ‘Chipman: A Little-Known Student of Americanisms’ in AS XXV:3 182: skedaddle. Stampede; a hurried & confused retreat.
1999		Indep. Rev. 10 July 9: The novel’s lurches and skedaddles.
2003		N. Griffiths Stump 46: Soon’s I was legally allowed to, that was me — fwit. Gone. Skedaddle.

2. a fuss, excitement, disturbance.

1992

M. Frayn Now You Know 247: ‘Look, will you to stop messing around!’ she shouts – cause she’s in a real skedaddle herself! I got them both going.