Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In it, Khan implied past regulators had shirked their duties and become too lax, saying, “Enforcers have to use discretion, but that doesn’t give us the right to ignore a central part of our mandate.”

From Slate • Feb. 10, 2025

Mr Hague said that eradicating sexual violence was a responsibility the world, and men in particular, had shirked for too long.

From BBC • Feb. 26, 2014

At one point, McGovern was forced to defend himself against assertions he had shirked combat.

From Salon • Oct. 21, 2012

I felt an urge to run to his parents’ home and cradle his baby in my arms, as if she were the responsibility I had shirked.

From New York Times • Jul. 28, 2011

In school he had failed miserably; out of school he had shirked sports in which he ought easily to have excelled and “rotted” when he might have been doing good execution for Templeton.

From Follow My leader The Boys of Templeton by Stacey, W. S. (Walter S.)