skirl
Americanverb (used without object)
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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
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a shrill sound
Etymology
Origin of skirl
1350–1400; Middle English scirlen, skrillen (v.), perhaps < Scandinavian; compare Norwegian skrella boom, crash
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.
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
Thousands of Scotland fans are in London ahead of their Euro 2020 match with England - but the skirl of the bagpipes has largely been drowned out by a 1970s disco classic.
From BBC • Jun. 18, 2021
"It had all the strange, wild, emotional force of the skirl of a bagpipe," wrote Herbert Warren Wind.
From Golf Digest • Apr. 13, 2020
The skirl also got to Lily Cunningham, a pixie of a 13-year-old who stood beside the evening’s emcee, Arthur McAra, clutching her three-quarter-sized bagpipe.
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
