skirl

[ skurl ]

/ skɜrl /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR skirl ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used without object)

to play the bagpipe.

Scot. and North England. to shriek.

noun

the sound of a bagpipe.

Scot. and North England. any shrill sound.

Nearby words

Origin of skirl

1350–1400; Middle English scirlen, skrillen (v.), perhaps < Scandinavian; compare Norwegian skrella boom, crash

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for skirl

Come here—or stay where ye are, and skirl as loud as ye can; it's a' ye're gude for.
Bride of Lammermoor|Sir Walter Scott
Shriller than the scream of shells above them was the skirl of pipes, going with them.
Now It Can Be Told|Philip Gibbs
Fin now gave a skirl that startled the giant, as coming from such a youngster as he was represented to be.
Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry|William Butler Yeats
Her voice went with the skirl of an east wind through the rat-riddled mansion of the Hallidays.
The House with the Green Shutters|George Douglas Brown

For wi' the bang and the skirl the thing had clean disappeared.
David Balfour, Second Part|Robert Louis Stevenson

British Dictionary definitions for skirl

skirl

/ (skɜːl, Scottish skɪrl) /

verb (intr)

Scot and Northern English dialect (esp of bagpipes) to emit a shrill sound

to play the bagpipes

noun

the sound of bagpipes

a shrill sound

Word Origin for skirl

C14: probably of Scandinavian origin; see shrill

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for skirl

skirl

"to make a shrill sound," mid-15c., from a Scandinavian source (cf. Norwegian skyrlaskrella "to shriek"), of imitative origin. In reference to bagpipes, it is attested by 1660s and now rarely used otherwise. As a noun 1510s from the verb.