skirl
Americanverb (used without object)
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skirls,
present (3rd person singular)
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skirled,
past participle, past
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skirling
present participle
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to play the bagpipe.
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Scot. and North England. to shriek.
noun
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the sound of a bagpipe.
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Scot. and North England. any shrill sound.
verb
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dialect (esp of bagpipes) to emit a shrill sound
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to play the bagpipes
noun
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the sound of bagpipes
-
a shrill sound
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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skirlsimple
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skirlssimple
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have skirledperfect
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has skirledperfect
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am skirlingprogressive
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are skirlingprogressive
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is skirlingprogressive
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have been skirlingperfect progressive
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has been skirlingperfect progressive
Past
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skirledsimple
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had skirledperfect
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was skirlingprogressive
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were skirlingprogressive
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had been skirlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of skirl
1350–1400; Middle English scirlen, skrillen (v.), perhaps < Scandinavian; compare Norwegian skrella boom, crash
Vocabulary lists containing skirl
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.
See Examples For:
Belief swirled like the skirl of the bagpipes.
From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2025
Bringing Scotland to the Pacific Northwest for over 75 years through the skirl o’ the Pipes and Drums, the beauty of Highland Dancing, the brawn of Scottish athletics, and the sharing of clan history!
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 26, 2024
"It had all the strange, wild, emotional force of the skirl of a bagpipe," wrote Herbert Warren Wind.
From Golf Digest ● Apr. 13, 2020
It is often referred to as a skirl.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 31, 2017
Two Glover men began a spinning skirl on bladder and woodharp.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Its unnerving drones and belligerent skirls have been known to stir men's blood, their brains and, according to Shakespeare, their bladders.*
From Time Magazine Archive
He heard our skirls," Birse said, "but couldna grip the words ony mair than we could hear the earl.
From The Little Minister by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
“How could I sit still, Gavin, and the town full o’ the skirls of women and bairns?
From The Little Minister by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
How could I sit still, Gavin, and the town full o' the skirls of women and bairns?
From The Little Minister by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
"I heard the voice of that lad Andrew Lammie; can the chield be drowning, that he skirls sae uncannilie?" said the old woman, seating herself on the ground, and looking earnestly at the water.
From Stories of Mystery by Rossiter Johnson
Then the bagpipes skirled, and the coffin was loaded into the hearse and borne away for a private burial.
From New York Times ● Nov. 3, 2014
A bagpiper skirled "Amazing Grace," wreaths were laid and a bugler played "Taps."
From Reuters ● Jun. 6, 2014
Across the sands of Egypt the bagpipes of the 51st Highlanders skirled.
From Time Magazine Archive
Outside the town hall of Hamilton, a Lowlands town of 47,341, the bagpipes skirled We Shall Overcome.
From Time Magazine Archive
“Last dance!” someone called, and the music skirled up into something stately and slow and final.
From "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman
Two minutes later John McGinn smashed a shot on to the Chelsea bar from 30 yards, the rebound sending the ball skirling up a similar distance into the London sky.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 28, 2020
He turned Ms. Nicks’s “Gold Dust Woman” into a darker incantation before taking a long, skirling, keening solo in his own “I’m So Afraid”; “Tusk” was a cry of despair, not a novelty.
From New York Times ● Oct. 7, 2014
Distinct from the lilting singsong of the South, a Northern Irish accent is my favorite in the U.K.: hard, skirling, and sour, with a compulsively upward, interrogative lift at the end of the sentence.
From Newsweek ● Jul. 11, 2011
But there is still something magnificent – and magnificently out-of-kilter – about this great skirling tide of productivity.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 23, 2010
Even the wind seemed to whistle with derision as it came skirling through the Moon Door.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
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