Is there a verb for when a person walks slowly and quietly in a squatting position? John squatted down on his knees and slowly walked towards the car, hoping Laura wouldn't notice him.
There is 'shikko' - knee walking But could the character just be said to "walk forward on his knees," or to "crouch down and creep forward"? The mental image it creates might be slightly different, but that might not matter. The reader probably doesn't care where a book character's legs go. Most characters float most of the time.
If you mean squatting, I would say "duck walked". If you mean kneeling, I would use a verb like "shuffle" or "edge".
Squatted makes me think of someone about to relieve themselves in an toilet-less situation. Maybe: John dropped to his haunches and duckwalked... John crouched down... John hunkered down... (a verb that always makes me want to chortle for some reason) Ignore my two cents worth with my apologies if it annoys you. I'm just playing mind games with myself.
Are there other cars nearby or does he do this in the open? There is 'crouch' and 'crouch walking', but crouch walking usually only happens when there is say a wall or fence or vehicle nearby for support and visual cover.
Duck walk? Never heard of it. Except.... If John is 4 years old, he should certainly try duck walking. If John is a duck, then it stands to reason and he's already a third of the way there. What does he look like and sound like? If John is likely to be shot by Laura, his final words will be, "did it have to be a duck walk?"
Duck walking was even part of the induction physical to the US Navy way back when. In your skivvies no less. Chiropractor checks you for scoliosis, duck walk twenty feet to the turn-your-head-and-cough station, and then cover your left eye and read the smallest line of print you can. Pro tip: do not say m-a-d-e-i-n-j-a-p-a-n. Those guys have no sense of humor.
This kind of movement is prevalent in first-person shooter video games. I was surprised there wasn't a specific word for it. Duck walk didn't work for me.
Duck walk doesn't work for moving in a tactical crouch because moving in a tactical crouch is not done in a squatting position, which is what the OP asked about.
Eighty guys, wearing nothing but flip-flop sandals, duck-walking in a circle in the communal showers with all the taps blasting full hot. Welcome to the Marines.
We used to call it duck walk in the army too, but you don't squat to do it... we didnt do it as an entrance thing like the US apparently do, for us it was just tactical training for belfast...the purpose of the duck walk being to keep your head below concealment..like below a parked car if you are fighting in the streets, in the interest of not getting it shot off... its an appropriate description if john has a military or police background, or other tactical environment training, not so much if we are dealing with two civilians having an argument nor can you squat down on your knees, the verb for that is knelt, however I think the OP is (again) suffering from trying to describe every damn thing.... does it matter that john squatted, or exactly how he moved? John crept towards the car John crawled towards the car John edged towards the car
I missed that in the OP, but you are entirely correct. Squatting is bending the knees past 90 degrees, so your rump touches or closely approaches your heels. Squatting is not kneeling; the knees do not touch the floor/ground when squatting.
this also shows the tendency towards redundancy - if you say someone is duck walking or whatever the reader understands that they are crouching to do it, likewise if you tell the reader they are crouching you don't have to specifically describe how they move next also if someone is creeping or edging or whatever you don't need the 'hoping lisa wouldn't notice him' because its obvious hence the whole sentence is covered by 'john crept towards the the car'
I also prefer duck-walked or duck walked, but after you said "crouched down and..." my first thought was waddled. It's what ducks do. You could also get by with squat-walked. But crept is also good if you don't want to distract with too much specificity.
nah frog marched means something completely different verb past tense: frog-marched; past participle: frog-marched force (someone) to walk forward by holding and pinning their arms from behind. "the cop frogmarched him down the steep stairs"
