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.
His story begins with a martial skirr in the Peking of 1922.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
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
The household went to bed, and a silence fell upon the dwelling, broken only by the occasional skirr of a halter in Melbury's stables.
From The Woodlanders by Hardy, Thomas
His orders were to skirr the mountain country between the Catawba and the Yadkin, harass the whigs, inspirit the tories, and embody the militia under the royal banner.
From The Student's Life of Washington; Condensed from the Larger Work of Washington Irving For Young Persons and for the Use of Schools by Irving, Washington
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.
