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Showing results for "skirling"
  • present participle of skirl.
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skirling

American  
[skur-ling] / ˈskɜr lɪŋ /

noun

Scot. and North England.
  1. the act of shrieking.


Etymology

Origin of skirling

First recorded in 1775–85; skirl + -ing 1

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:

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

Another cliff-ghast and then a third fell in the stream or on the rocks nearby, stark dead; and then the rest fled, skirling and chittering into the dark toward the north.

From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman

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