Other forms: scooters
A scooter is the thing you stand on and push along with one foot: a low board, two small wheels and a handle at the top. Half the children on the pavement at eight in the morning are on one, and quite a few of the adults now too.
The other scooter is a small motorbike you sit on, with a step-through frame and your feet flat in front of you instead of astride an engine — a Vespa is a scooter, and in Rome and Hanoi they are the traffic. From those two come the rest: a mobility scooter is an electric seat on wheels for somebody who cannot walk far, and an e-scooter is the rented one you unlock with your phone and leave at the kerb. You ride a scooter and you get on a scooter; you do not drive one.
1nountoyA board on two small wheels with an upright handle, pushed along with one foot.~34%
“He left his scooter by the front door.”
synonyms: kick scooter
2nounscooterA small motorbike with a step-through frame and a flat floor for your feet.~59%
“They rented a scooter for the week in Rome.”
synonyms: moped
3nounelectricAn electric seat on wheels for somebody who cannot walk far.~7%
“She does her whole shop from a mobility scooter.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 162 sentences found in the wild and placed 103 of them on a sense (59 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
SCOO-ter → SCHOOl
Both hands on the tall handle, one foot on the board, two small wheels under it — one push and the school gate is already going past your shoulder.
hooks ontoschool
Old Norse
skjóta — to shoot
English
scoot
English, today
scooter
From scoot + -er. scoot Of unknown origin. Perhaps from Old Norse skjóta (“to shoot”), or perhaps related to Middle English scottlynge (“moving one's feet quickly, scampering”) literally “scuttling”, see scuddle, scuttle.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA