To clear out; to absquatulate.
1878. When the camp was asleep [we] lit out over the hills ’thout sayin’ a word to any human bein’.—J. H. Beadle, ‘Western Wilds,’ p. 42.
1878. The horses broke loose and lit out down the street, like the devil a beatin’ tan-bark.—Id., p. 184.
1890. I looked around and found the ginnel [general] gone, and I took one leap and lit out of thar in a jiffy.—Mrs. Custer, ‘Following the Guidon,’ p. 103 (N.Y.).
1901. They told us that we had better be ‘lighting out;’ that the roads and woods were ‘alive with Yankee cavalry. They are in Stevenson and pushing on this way in heavy force.’—W. Pittenger, ‘The Great Locomotive Chase,’ p. 201.
1903. In S.E. Missouri, the phrase is to light a rag. “He go skeered and lit a rag for home.”—‘Dialect Notes,’ ii. 319.
