Noun She was wearing a short skirt. The skirt of her coat got caught in the car door. They put a protective skirt around the base of the machine. Verb The mayor skirted the issue by saying that a committee was looking into the problem. They tried to skirt the new regulations. He tried to skirt around the question. Pine trees skirt the northern edge of the pond. The road skirts around the lake. We skirted around the edge of the city. See More
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Taylor posed for the snap, dressed in a hoodie and her blue plaid uniform skirt, paired with a classic pair of Chuck Taylor Converse sneakers. Angela Andaloro, Peoplemag, 7 Sep. 2022 Andreescu was out on the Grandstand court to play Harmony Tan but the winds at the open arena kept blowing her skirt up and affecting her shots, forcing the 22-year-old to approach the chair umpire and request an additional bathroom break to change. Reuters, NBC News, 30 Aug. 2022 Besides those saddle shoes, Russell still has her poodle skirt, too. John Kelly, Washington Post, 30 Aug. 2022 In other words, there's a jean maxi skirt for everyone. Kerry Pieri, Harper's BAZAAR, 29 Aug. 2022 The counterpart to the slinky slip dress is the slinky slip skirt. Laura Jackson, Vogue, 17 Aug. 2022 Instagrammer Kenn's Pen added social media icons to her skirt and paired it with a white tee personalized with her social media handle. Terri Robertson, Country Living, 16 Aug. 2022 Newton-John wore her signature yellow skirt and matching cardigan, complete with the white button up. Sandra Gonzalez, CNN, 8 Aug. 2022 Rather than a subway grate on the streets of New York, Lil Nas X is standing over a manhole cover with elongated ovals as his skirt billows up. Anna Chan, Billboard, 22 July 2022
Verb
Furthermore, even if an NDA exists, sometimes the member will try to skirt around the provisions. Lance Eliot, Forbes, 8 Aug. 2022 Migrants often try to skirt the checkpoint by crossing nearby ranches, but the landscape can be disorienting and the heat punishing. Rachel Monroe, The New Yorker, 2 Aug. 2022 At Shore Galleries, for example, inspectors attributed incomplete sales forms to clerical errors instead of any willful attempt to skirt regulatory requirements. Champe Barton, USA TODAY, 11 Apr. 2022 Tech inspectors look for signs of potential failure before races, and pilots must attend racing school to learn how to skirt the pylons and maintain a high speed with maximum safety while flying close to other racers. Alice George, Smithsonian Magazine, 26 July 2022 This allows Netflix to skirt Apple’s 30% commission for in-app purchases. Jacob Siegal, BGR, 25 July 2022 The effort closes a loophole where jails could skirt reporting in-custody deaths if an inmate died at a hospital or on the way to a hospital. Paighten Harkins, The Salt Lake Tribune, 6 July 2022 Webster said the guns skirt federal and state laws and are a growing problem. Sudiksha Kochi, USA TODAY, 24 June 2022 Her mother, Trevor’s grandmother, even tried to skirt Garcia’s rules and buy Trevor a smartphone.Washington Post, 9 May 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English, from Old Norse skyrta shirt, kirtle — more at shirt
First Known Use
Noun
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a(1)