skirt
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: skû(r)t
ipa: /skɜːt/
enpr: skûrt
ipa: /skɚt/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)t
Forms: form: skirts
form: skirting
form: skirted
form: skirted
Etymology: From Middle English skyrte, from Old Norse skyrta, from Proto-Germanic *skurtijǭ. Doublet of shirt. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Skoarte (“apron”), Dutch schort (“apron”), German Schürze (“apron”), Danish skørt (“skirt”), Swedish skört (“hem of a jacket”), Norwegian skjørt (“skirt”).
Senses: examples: text: The plain was skirted by rows of trees.
text: The lofty mountains roſe faint to the ſight and loſt their foreheads in the diſtant ſkies: the little hills, cloathed in darker green and ſkirted with embroidered vales, diſcovered the ſecret haunts of kids and bounding roes.
ref: 1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iv:
text: The railway, which is single track throughout, skirts the left bank of the estuary of the River Colne, and was washed out over a length of about three miles.
ref: 1953 December, “Brightlingsea trains to be Restored”, in Railway Magazine, page 793:
glosses: To be on or form the border of.
examples: text: skirt a mountain
text: An enormous man and woman (it was early-closing day) were stretched motionless, with their heads on pocket-handkerchiefs, side by side, within a few feet of the sea, while two or three gulls gracefully skirted the incoming waves, and settled near their boots.
ref: 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:
text: As we skirted the shores of the Dornoch Firth, between Tain and Bonar Bridge, the views across the water to the Sutherland mountains were particularly fine in the early morning sunshine.
ref: 1950 January, Arthur F. Beckenham, “With British Railways to the Far North”, in Railway Magazine, page 6:
text: After Nanhsi, head into the hills again as you skirt Tsengwen Reservoir on a roller coaster of steep grades.
ref: 1994, Roger Grigsby, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China's East Coast (China by Bike), The Mountaineers, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 108:
text: A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays. […] This would also let high-speed trains skirt cities as moving platforms ferry passengers to and from the city centre.
ref: 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):
text: I'd forgotten how scenic parts of the line are - the railway crosses a host of streams while meandering through meadows or skirting woodland.
ref: 2020 November 18, Paul Bigland, “New infrastructure and new rolling stock”, in Rail, page 51:
glosses: To move around or along the border of; to avoid the center of.
examples: text: skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
glosses: To cover with a skirt; to surround.
examples: text: He skirted the issue of which parties to attend by staying at home instead.
text: To be clear: I’m not saying Katyal helped a large corporation skirt child slavery laws, I’m just saying that he is the sort of guy who is a typical Burning Man attendee these days: the establishment in a goofy hat.
ref: 2023 September 5, Arwa Mahdawi, “Why all the Burning Man schadenfreude? Where do I start ...”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
glosses: To avoid or ignore (something); to manage to avoid (something or a problem); to skate by (something).
Derived terms: skirt around
skirter
skirting-board
sunskirter
unskirted