skirling
[ skur-ling ]
/ ˈskɜr lɪŋ /
noun Scot. and North England.
the act of shrieking.
RELATED WORDS
blare, hiss, sound, signal, whine, warble, pipe, toot, whiz, wheeze, blast, shriek, fife, trill, tootle, flute, skirl
Nearby words
Origin of skirling
skirl
[ skurl ]
/ skɜrl /
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.
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 skirling
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
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.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper