take a powder
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to leave quickly or depart without notice
Literally: take a powder
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
‘ I'll take a powder,’ said Natasha and, picking up what remained of her piece, rose and strolled away.
Utilizing some of the truly awesome powers at my disposal, I took, as Laz would say, a powder, and went on the lam.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “take a powder” mean?
to leave quickly or depart without notice Literally: take a powder
Is “take a powder” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.