Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. of people or animals, to leave, to run away, to abscond, thus absquatulator, an escapee.

1830		Georgia Messenger 15 May n.p.: Cracker Dictionary... Obsquatulate, to mosey, or to abscond.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 36: If you obsquotulate, you are ded before you can say Jack Robinson.
1837		R.M. Bird Nick of the Woods I 117: Your blooded brown horse has absquotulated!
1839		Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA) 8 June 2/3: He has left town — gone — decamped — evacuated — sloped — absquatulated — cut dirt — Swartiwouted.
1840		T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 204: What’s the use of legs but to absquatulate with like a jumpin’ bull frog.
1841		Sydney Free Press 13 July 3/3: A rumour is current in town that a country gentleman, who was for some time resident here, has ‘absquatulated’ with a large amount of the money of the publicans.
1842		N.Y. Aurora 27 Apr. n.p.: [headline] Curns, the ‘Absquatulator’.
1843		L.H. Medina Nick of the Woods II i: Your blooded brown mare has absquatulated – stolen by that etarnal roaring Ralph Stackpole.
1854		Preston Chron. 8 Apr. 5/2: Boots said the only reward he got for taking his [i.e a ‘worthy bumpkin’] carpet bag to the train was a very polite request to ‘absquatulate’ to the infernal regions.
1856		Melbourne Punch 20 Nov. 3/1: Proposals for a New Slang Dictionary [...] ABSQUATULATE.—Originally written Absquostatulate. Verb neuter: To clear, to vamos, to mizzle, to cut one's stick, to hook it, to slide, to bolt to break out, etc. Derivation—From the Latin—ab or absquo-statu and latum from fero, i. e„ to be carried or to carry one self away from the place iu which one previously was.
1857		Sth Aus. Register (Adelaide) 6 June 3/6: The hon. member appeared so completely to agree in the cosmopolitan views of the hon. the Commissioner of Crown lands that if the latter gentleman should absquatulate he might, perhaps, very worthily fill his place.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 69: OBSQUATULATE, to run away, or decamp.
1859		‘Timothy Titcomb’ Letters to Young People 141: You might just as well ‘cave in,’ first as last, and ‘absquatulate,’ for you can’t ‘put it through,’ ‘any way you can fix it.’.
1862		Golden Age (Queanbeyan, NSW) 4 Sept. 3/2: [T]he reminder about the Murrumbidgee settled poor TOM altogether; as one of our Slap-Bangites, YANKEE BILL said, ‘he had to absquatulate totally’.
1867		R. Broughton Cometh up as a Flower 323: ‘Since this is my chamber, and not yours —’ ‘You’d thank me to “absquatulate,” as the Yankees say.’.
1871		Hamilton Spectator (Vic.) 7 Jan. 1/7: A young gentleman gets into ‘little difficulties,’ [...] He fears he will have to ‘absquatulate,’ ‘ missle,’ ‘ slope,’ ‘ cut’ ‘ dodge,’ ‘make tracks,’ ‘make himself scarce,’ unless the governor ‘shells out’.
1877		J.F. Rusling Great West and Pacific Coast 73: To ‘vamose the ranch’ means to clear out, to depart, to cut stick, to absquatulate.
1880		R. Rowe Picked Up in the Streets 23: ‘I was speaking to that gentleman, sir,’ he said, and hastily ‘absquatulated’.
1889		Farmer Americanisms 4: Absquatulate, also Absquotilate. — to run away, to decamp, with the more or less forcible idea of absconding in disgrace.
1890		Buckskin Mose I 18: The vagabond had ‘absquatulated’ with the whole of the joint-stock funds .
1890		Nepean Times (Penrith, NSW) 22 Mar. 7/4: This was a squelcher, and the big ‘un absquatulated without further opposition.
1891		Sporting Times 17 Jan. 1/3: Leaving his Brooding Bull-Pup to Keep and Optic on the Soup and see No one Absquatulated with the Hors d’Oeuvre.
1905		N.Y. Tribune 3 Dec. n.p.: ‘Mizzle?’ said Lester. ‘He means “git”; “vamoose”; “absquatulate”.
1913		Truth (Sydney) 16 Feb. 7/8: Mizzled and absquatulated / (Where they went Lord only knows).
1916		E. Gates Poor Little Rich Girl 223: Then – would you please tell me, what is the meaning of absquatulate?
1944		Post (Lanarks) 23 Apr. 6/3: Absquatulate — depart.
1962		Aus. Women’s Wkly 18 Apr. 78/3: ‘So the beggar absquatulated,’ said Allingham at last.
2021		Twitter 7 Apr. 🌐 I was compelled to absquatulate with [my stick] due to some scary, skateboarding ruffians in my immediate area.

2. of an object, to separate, to break away from.

1842		Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) 29 June n.p.: When Mr. F. again called, the shingle had absquatulated from the shutter.
1858		Salem (IL) Advocate 27 Feb. 1/2: She might [...] give him a kiss. Ah, and a good one, too — not one of the touches that wouldn’t make a dew drop absquatulate from a rose leaf [DA].