skirt

[skurt]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR skirt ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

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.

a flat horizontal brace set immediately beneath the seat of a chair, chest of drawers, or the like, to strengthen the legs.
Also called bed, frieze..a flat brace or support immediately beneath a tabletop.

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.

verb (used with object)

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).

verb (used without object)

to be or lie on or along the edge of something.

to move along or around the border of something.

Origin of skirt

1250–1300; Middle English skirte < Old Norse skyrta shirt

Related formsskirt·less, adjectiveskirt·like, adjectiveun·skirt·ed, adjective

Synonyms for skirt

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR skirt ON THESAURUS.COM

13. evade, shun, circle, bypass.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for skirt

hem, petticoat, dress, kilt, sarong, dodge, elude, sidestep, evade, ignore, bypass, circumvent, perimeter, verge, outskirts, fringe, rim, periphery, brim, margin

Examples 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.
Best Career Arc Ever: From Burlesque To Bartending
Anne Berry
September 13, 2014
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 Aniston
Kevin 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.
Does California’s College Rape Bill Go Too Far In Regulating Sex?
Emma Woolf
June 23, 2014
Forced C-section debates often skirt or even devolve into a proxy pro-choice/pro-life debate, explains Diaz-Tello.
The Mom Forced to Have a C-Section
Emily Shire
June 5, 2014
In November last year her Orla Kiely skirt blew up in the wind when she visited a charity function in London.
Kate Middleton's History of Flesh-Flashing Wardrobe Malfunctions
Tom Sykes
May 29, 2014

Historical Examples of skirt

The dress was of silky changeable tricolette, the skirt plain.
Her Father's Daughter
Gene Stratton-Porter
Some roses grew behind the hollyhocks, and her skirt was caught.
Quaint Courtships
Various
The skirt was long enough to tuck around her baby's feet when she carried it.
The Underdog
F. Hopkinson Smith
"Yes," said Lucindy, smiling, and plaiting her skirt between her nervous fingers.
Meadow Grass
Alice Brown
She was paying minute attention to the lace insertion of her skirt.
The Fortune Hunter
Louis Joseph Vance

British Dictionary definitions for skirt

skirt

noun

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

verb

(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)

Derived Formsskirted, adjective

Word Origin for skirt

C13: from Old Norse skyrta shirt

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

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.