What's the difference between scamper and scurry?

Scamper


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To run with speed; to run or move in a quick, hurried manner; to hasten away.
  • (n.) A scampering; a hasty flight.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Again Beasley scampers forwards down the left, but Torres does well to tackle at full stretch.
  • (2) But everyone knows that the scars of their 3-0 loss to the Americans in the 1930 World Cup are still fresh, so expect the Belgians to scamper around like puppies in a pile of bones play like men with the weight of the world on their shoulders tonight, and for the American Outlaws to be making pointed references to Uruguay 30 from the stands throughout.
  • (3) Across this relatively peaceful corner of the Horn of Africa, where black-headed sheep scamper among the thorn bushes, dainty gerenuk balance on their hind legs to nibble from hardy shrubs, and skinny camels wearing rough-hewn bells lumber over rocky slopes, people long accustomed to a harsh environment find they cannot cope after years of below-average rainfall.
  • (4) And the abiding image of this game will be of Argentina's No10 scampering past opponents like the fastest kid at school evading his pursuers in a game of tag; somehow being faster with the ball than without it.
  • (5) 8.50pm BST 18 min: After solid possession play by Real, Bale scampers past three defenders and into the box.
  • (6) 83 min: Messi scampers in from the right and drills a low shot towards the near post, but Cech plunges down and gets the lightest of fingertips on the ball to push it on the post!
  • (7) 3.14pm BST 12 min: Now it's West Ham's turn to threaten, as Downing scampers behind the City defence on the right.
  • (8) As it scampered towards its subsequent escape, fans substituted 'cat' for 'attack' as they chanted: "A cat, a cat; a cat, a cat, a cat!"
  • (9) But we go to deuce and Dimitrov will be pleased to see how much he's making Murray scamper around the baseline.
  • (10) Bayern’s only real mistake in the first half came in the form of Benatia’s poor positioning and mistimed challenge after Frank Lampard had clipped the ball over the top for Agüero to scamper clear.
  • (11) He looks half decent when he gets on the ball, the little scampering lad.
  • (12) 38 min: Welbeck sashays and scampers down the inside-right channel, making himself space just to the right of the D and dragging a shot across the face of goal and out on the left.
  • (13) Yet, much like floaters in your eye, try to focus on these toxins and they scamper from view.
  • (14) Firstly, Parker lost possession after going down in midfield and, as he bawled for a free-kick, Adnan Januzaj scampered away with the ball before passing to Van Persie, who, again with no Fulham defenders in attendance, smashed into the net from 15 yards out.
  • (15) This humble artefact turns characters into cat form, scampering up walls, scratching away enemies and becoming around 60% more adorable – clearly created with internet fandom in mind.
  • (16) Kicking it seemed the easier option, but he decided to get down on one knee and head straight at Bravo, who had time to recover, scamper across his line and save well.
  • (17) 5.05pm BST 3 min: St Zuber goes on a freewheeling run up the left wing and loses the ball, prompting a hoofed thump from City in an attempt to find Aguero as he scampers into the box.
  • (18) A scrawny black dog wanders into the road, sizes up his human visitors and scampers back into the woods.
  • (19) Gareth Bale defiant over fans’ criticism of Real Madrid’s European exit Read more It was now back to square one, and Real again attacked primarily through Marcelo: he scampered forward and played a good low cross for a Bale chance, then his one-two with Ronaldo produced another Bale opportunity, this time a far-post header.
  • (20) Kids steamed past on scooters, ran around in fields, scampered through a forest, all red-cheeked and brazenly healthy.

Scurry


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To hasten away or along; to move rapidly; to hurry; as, the rabbit scurried away.
  • (n.) Act of scurring; hurried movement.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Suddenly he would be picking up speed, scurrying past opponents and, in one instance, slipping the ball through Laurent Koscielny’s legs for a nutmeg that was so exquisitely executed he might have been tempted to ruffle his opponent’s hair.
  • (2) Managers scurry back and forth across the Atlantic with advance copies handcuffed to their wrists, critics are required to sign contracts promising that they will not so much as hum the contents to their nearest and dearest, and the music press acts as if the world is about to witness the most significant release since Nelson Mandela's.
  • (3) Pavlov included nonassociative controls, forward pairing of the indifferent stimuli before reinforcing the second one with shock, and he avoided the development of inhibition to the compound by using a moving visual stimulus and a sound like that of scurrying mice, which both had persistent orienting reactions.
  • (4) It seemed to me that Kafka had trouble imagining a universe where Gregor the Bug scurried about on the street, doing all kinds of wild things.
  • (5) Through dexterous operation of the Shinkai6500's mechanical arms by pilot Sasaki-san, we quickly began collecting samples of rocks, the hot fluids from the vents, and the creatures thriving around them: speckled anemones with almost-translucent tentacles, and the orange-tinted shrimp scurrying among them.
  • (6) 3.44pm BST First set: *Djokovic 1-4 Nadal (*denotes server) Djokovic scurries to the net, slicing a backhand volley crosscourt when there was no need - Nadal's groundstroke was going wide.
  • (7) Continued to fight but was starved of the ball once City scored Ki Sung-yueng 6 Retained possession well in the first half and kept things ticking along for Sunderland although, as the game progressed, became slightly overawed in midfield Sebastian Larsson 6 Scurried around for the hour that he was on the pitch.
  • (8) The fishmonger is summoned and scurries away apologetically.
  • (9) But it has dawned on me, scurrying through clouds of teargas and slipping on blood, that the protesters are on to a bigger point.
  • (10) The story of his life mortified him and sent him scurrying for excuses.
  • (11) After the break, Pablo Hernández, who has the scurrying style of Real Madrid's Angel di María, started the move from which Swansea equalised.
  • (12) With hundreds of clinical practice parameters in place and hundreds more being developed, clinicians are scurrying just to keep up.
  • (13) But the idea that Osborne and Gove will scurry off to paint “Vote Boris” on the side of their formidable political machine is fanciful.
  • (14) Parking is near the elegiac ruins of Tintern Abbey, and from there one embarks upon a digestible but heart thumping climb up to the Devil's Pulpit, a rocky outcrop, affording fantastic views, where the evil doer himself supposedly used to preach temptation to the industrious monks scurrying below.
  • (15) The attorney general, George Brandis, who is said by officials in Canberra to be a torturously slow decision maker, is forced to scurry behind the prime minister with the laptop, drafting the particulars.
  • (16) Luck that he lived in a village where no one gave a shit about him scurrying about like pastoral Rambo until it became absolutely impossible to ignore.
  • (17) And Disney have got to get it absolutely right, or risk the kind of abuse which eventually sent Lucas scurrying away from his own space saga in horror at the fanboy monster he had created.
  • (18) The traffic was almost bumper-to-bumper as I scurried in – partly because of the tight security (several guards are posted outside the main buildings and at junctions).
  • (19) The news sent her scurrying – not to her home but to her workplace, the headquarters of the Children of the 90s project in Bristol.
  • (20) Refrigeration units with doors mean customers don’t have to scurry uncomfortably along aisles in near-Arctic conditions and, as they require much smaller quantities of refrigerant, they are easier and safer to run on natural refrigerants.