skirt
- the part of a gown, dress, slip, or coat that extends downward from the waist.
- a one-piece garment extending downward from the waist and not joined between the legs, worn especially by women and girls.
- some part resembling or suggesting the skirt of a garment, as the flared lip of a bell or a protective and ornamental cloth strip covering the legs of furniture.
- a small leather flap on each side of a saddle, covering the metal bar from which the stirrup hangs.
- Building Trades.
- Also called apron. Furniture.
- Usually skirts. the bordering, marginal, or outlying part of a place, group, etc.; the outskirts.
- Older Slang: Usually Disparaging and Offensive. a term used to refer to a woman or girl: to chase some skirt; a skirt chaser.
- Rocketry. an outer part of a rocket or missile that provides structural support or houses such systems as avionics or gyroscopes.
- to lie on or along the border of: The hills skirt the town.
- to border, wrap, or cover with a skirt or something suggesting a skirt in appearance or function.
- to pass along or around the border or edge of: Traffic skirts the town.
- to avoid, go around the edge of, or keep distant from (something that is controversial, risky, etc.): The senator skirted the issue.
- to remove low-grade wool and foreign matter from (the outer edge of fleece).
- to be or lie on or along the edge of something.
- to move along or around the border of something.
Origin of skirt
Synonyms for skirt
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comRelated Words for skirt
hem, petticoat, dress, kilt, sarong, dodge, elude, sidestep, evade, ignore, bypass, circumvent, perimeter, verge, outskirts, fringe, rim, periphery, brim, marginExamples from the Web for skirt
Contemporary Examples of skirt
On stage, Amber spoofed Sarah Palin in a topknot and librarian glasses, yanking a toy gun and stuffed moose from her skirt.
It would be impossible to do press for the film and skirt questions about the Jolie-Pitt nuptials.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt Got Married and We’re Worried About Jennifer AnistonKevin Fallon, Tim Teeman
August 28, 2014
As he says, most men are not predatory sex pests, trying to force themselves on women, get a hand up her skirt, or cop a feel.
Forced C-section debates often skirt or even devolve into a proxy pro-choice/pro-life debate, explains Diaz-Tello.
In November last year her Orla Kiely skirt blew up in the wind when she visited a charity function in London.
Historical Examples of skirt
The dress was of silky changeable tricolette, the skirt plain.
Her Father's DaughterGene Stratton-Porter
Some roses grew behind the hollyhocks, and her skirt was caught.
Quaint CourtshipsVarious
The skirt was long enough to tuck around her baby's feet when she carried it.
The UnderdogF. Hopkinson Smith
"Yes," said Lucindy, smiling, and plaiting her skirt between her nervous fingers.
Meadow GrassAlice Brown
She was paying minute attention to the lace insertion of her skirt.
The Fortune HunterLouis Joseph Vance
skirt
- a garment hanging from the waist, worn chiefly by women and girls
- the part of a dress below the waist
- Also called: apron a frieze or circular flap, as round the base of a hovercraft
- the flaps on a saddle that protect a rider's legs
- British a cut of beef from the flank
- (often plural) a margin or outlying area
- NZ the lower part of a sheep's fleece
- bit of skirt slang a girl or woman
- (tr) to form the edge of
- (tr) to provide with a border
- (when intr, foll by around, along, etc) to pass (by) or be situated (near) the outer edge of (an area, etc)
- (tr) to avoid (a difficulty, etc)he skirted the issue
- mainly Australian and NZ to remove the trimmings or inferior wool from (a fleece)
Word Origin for skirt
Word Origin and History for skirt
early 14c., "lower part of a woman's dress," from Old Norse skyrta "shirt, a kind of kirtle;" see shirt. Sense development from "shirt" to "skirt" is possibly related to the long shirts of peasant garb (cf. Low German cognate Schört, in some dialects "woman's gown"). Sense of "border, edge" (in outskirts, etc.) first recorded late 15c. Metonymic use for "women collectively" is from 1550s; slang sense of "young woman" is from 1906; skirt-chaser first attested 1942.
c.1600, "to border, form the edge of," from skirt (n.). Meaning "to pass along the edge" is from 1620s. Related: Skirted; skirting.