Green’s Dictionary of Slang

absquatulate v.

also absquotilate, absquotulate, obsquatulate
[pig Lat. based on SE abscond + squat + sfx -ulate; note John Mitchell Bonnell, ‘A manual of the art of prose composition: for the use of colleges and schools’ (1867): ‘absquatulate – to remove one’s residence away; as if squat were a Latin root, from which were formed squatulare and absquatulare’]
(orig. US)

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

[US]Georgia Messenger 15 May n.p.: Cracker Dictionary... Obsquatulate, to mosey, or to abscond.
[US]‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 36: If you obsquotulate, you are ded before you can say Jack Robinson.
[US]R.M. Bird Nick of the Woods I 117: Your blooded brown horse has absquotulated!
[US]Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA) 8 June 2/3: He has left town — gone — decamped — evacuated — sloped — absquatulated — cut dirt — Swartiwouted.
[US]T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 204: What’s the use of legs but to absquatulate with like a jumpin’ bull frog.
[Aus]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.
[US]N.Y. Aurora 27 Apr. n.p.: [headline] Curns, the ‘Absquatulator’.
[US]L.H. Medina Nick of the Woods II i: Your blooded brown mare has absquatulated – stolen by that etarnal roaring Ralph Stackpole.
[UK]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.
[Aus]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.
[Aus]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.
[UK]Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 69: OBSQUATULATE, to run away, or decamp.
[US]‘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.’.
[Aus]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’.
[UK]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.’.
[Aus]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’.
[US]J.F. Rusling Great West and Pacific Coast 73: To ‘vamose the ranch’ means to clear out, to depart, to cut stick, to absquatulate.
[UK]R. Rowe Picked Up in the Streets 23: ‘I was speaking to that gentleman, sir,’ he said, and hastily ‘absquatulated’.
[UK]Farmer Americanisms 4: Absquatulate, also Absquotilate. — to run away, to decamp, with the more or less forcible idea of absconding in disgrace.
Buckskin Mose I 18: The vagabond had ‘absquatulated’ with the whole of the joint-stock funds .
Nepean Times (Penrith, NSW) 22 Mar. 7/4: This was a squelcher, and the big ‘un absquatulated without further opposition.
[UK]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.
[US]N.Y. Tribune 3 Dec. n.p.: ‘Mizzle?’ said Lester. ‘He means “git”; “vamoose”; “absquatulate”.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 16 Feb. 7/8: Mizzled and absquatulated / (Where they went Lord only knows).
E. Gates Poor Little Rich Girl 223: Then – would you please tell me, what is the meaning of absquatulate?
[Scot]Post (Lanarks) 23 Apr. 6/3: Absquatulate — depart.
[Aus]Aus. Women’s Wkly 18 Apr. 78/3: ‘So the beggar absquatulated,’ said Allingham at last.
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.

[US]Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) 29 June n.p.: When Mr. F. again called, the shingle had absquatulated from the shutter.
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].