skirr
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
noun
verb
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(intr; usually foll by off, away, etc) to move, run, or fly rapidly
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archaic (tr) to move rapidly over (an area, etc), esp in order to find or apprehend
noun
Etymology
Origin of skirr
First recorded in 1540–50; variant of scour 2
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.
Andrew Motion, Britain's poet laureate since 1999, selected skirr, which refers to the rattling, scratchy noise that a bird's wings make during flight.
From Time Magazine Archive
His story begins with a martial skirr in the Peking of 1922.
From Time Magazine Archive
Beyond the ring and roll of hell— And spiral lofts of quartz and gold— We skirr upon the crutch of haste And cleave the abyss, cold and bleak.
From Betelguese A Trip Through Hell by de Esque, Jean
Steeds were browsing in the shade, with loosened bits, but saddled, ready at the first sound of the bugle to skirr through brake and thicket.
From The Life of Francis Marion by Simms, William Gilmore
These, with the constant skirr of the ground-crickets and the prolonged whine of the coyote, are the only sounds that salute them as they glide on—none of which are of a kind to cause alarm.
From The Lone Ranche by Reid, Mayne
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.
