看看節錄的這段關於台灣人 "訂婚" 的細節：

1. 女方親友參加

2. 要有一整套純首飾當 "聘金" (pingjin)

3. 男方親友只能有 6 或 12 人參加

4. 男方親友中必須有一個小男孩

5. 女方得給小男孩準備雞腿 (chicken drumstick)

6. 喝茶儀式 (tea ceremony)，男方每個人都要塞一個紅包在茶杯底下 (stick a red envelop under the tea cup)

7. 男方不可以吃完整頓喜宴，魚一上桌就要趕快閃人 
(hightail it out of there)，連目光交流都不行 

Mike: I’ve heard that the engagement party can be as big as the wedding and only includes the bride’s side.

Steve: Yes, and there are lots of ceremonial things that you
have to do when you get engaged. For example, the groom
has to provide a set of solid gold jewelry that will never get
worn again, and, of course, the “pingjin.”

Mike: But you knew about those already.

Steve: Right. I was just surprised by the little details. Like we
would either only bring 6 people or 12 people to the
engagement, one of which had to be a little boy. The bride’s
side had to prepare a chicken drumstick for him too. Then
there’s a tea ceremony in which each member of the groom’s
side must stick a red envelope under the tea cups. And get this:
we couldn’t stay for the whole thing. When the fish came, we
had to hightail it out of there without saying goodbye or even making eyecontact. 

~ by George Shih from KOJEN

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這裡面有一個動詞很特別：hightail (= high-tail)，從字面上來看實在很難猜出這個字的意思。拆開來看，動詞 tail 是 "尾隨"，又很難跟文章的意思連在一起，實在說不通。

複合字當中含有名詞一般都是作名詞，例如：high heels (高跟鞋)、blackboard(黑板)、flashlight (手電筒)、
laptop(膝上型手提電腦)等等。hightail 這個字卻是當動詞，相當少見。這個字的用法源自於動物感應到危險接近時，會翹起尾巴迅術逃離 (flee)。後來，延伸為 "趕忙"
(move quickly)

 "To hightail" does indeed come from the behavior of animals in flight, many of which raise their tails in alarm as they flee.

Interestingly, "hightail" has also been used to mean simply "to move quickly," as one might "hightail it" to the bank to
make a deposit before closing.

~ from the WORD DETECTIVE

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You'd better hotfoot it down to the video shop
before it closes.
你最好在租影片店打烊前趕快去。