skirt
Americannoun
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the part of a gown, dress, slip, or coat that extends downward from the waist.
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a one-piece garment extending downward from the waist and not joined between the legs, worn especially by women and girls.
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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.
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a small leather flap on each side of a saddle, covering the metal bar from which the stirrup hangs.
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Building Trades.
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Also called apron. Furniture.
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a flat horizontal brace set immediately beneath the seat of a chair, chest of drawers, or the like, to strengthen the legs.
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Also called bed, frieze. a flat brace or support immediately beneath a tabletop.
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Usually skirts the bordering, marginal, or outlying part of a place, group, etc.; the outskirts.
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Older Slang: Usually Disparaging and Offensive. a term used to refer to a woman or girl.
to chase some skirt;
a skirt chaser.
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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)
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to lie on or along the border of.
The hills skirt the town.
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to border, wrap, or cover with a skirt or something suggesting a skirt in appearance or function.
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to pass along or around the border or edge of.
Traffic skirts the town.
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to avoid, go around the edge of, or keep distant from (something that is controversial, risky, etc.).
The senator skirted the issue.
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to remove low-grade wool and foreign matter from (the outer edge of fleece).
verb (used without object)
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to be or lie on or along the edge of something.
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to move along or around the border of something.
noun
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a garment hanging from the waist, worn chiefly by women and girls
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the part of a dress below the waist
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Also called: apron. a frieze or circular flap, as round the base of a hovercraft
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the flaps on a saddle that protect a rider's legs
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a cut of beef from the flank
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(often plural) a margin or outlying area
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the lower part of a sheep's fleece
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slang a girl or woman
verb
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(tr) to form the edge of
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(tr) to provide with a border
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to pass (by) or be situated (near) the outer edge of (an area, etc)
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(tr) to avoid (a difficulty, etc)
he skirted the issue
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to remove the trimmings or inferior wool from (a fleece)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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skirtsimple
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skirtssimple
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have skirtedperfect
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has skirtedperfect
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am skirtingprogressive
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are skirtingprogressive
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is skirtingprogressive
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have been skirtingperfect progressive
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has been skirtingperfect progressive
Past
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skirtedsimple
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had skirtedperfect
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was skirtingprogressive
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were skirtingprogressive
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had been skirtingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of skirt
1250–1300; Middle English skirte < Old Norse skyrta shirt
Explanation
Unlike pants, which fully cover each of your legs separately, a skirt is basically a single piece of fabric covering part of your legs. If you want to show a little leg, wear a skirt! Skirts can be very short (like a miniskirt) or so long they drag on the ground. Long ago, skirt was also rude slang for a young woman. As a verb, skirt means "go around," like when you skirt a city instead of driving straight through it. The word outskirts, "outer parts or fringes" is related.
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.
He has also increasingly mocked the protests, recently posting an AI-generated video in which he is dressed in a faux-leather skirt and a mesh top, mimicking an influencer counting demonstrators.
From Barron's • Jun. 9, 2026
A separate auction from the company Heritage included a Christian Dior skirt that Monroe wore on her honeymoon and a letter from her husband playwright Arthur Miller.
From BBC • Jun. 4, 2026
That week, she threw on a pencil skirt and “cringey blouse,” a costume from playing a secretary in a TV movie, and read for the part of Emily Charlton again.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 4, 2026
A spoonful whisked into a skirt steak stew can make it taste as though it simmered well past dinnertime.
From Salon • Jun. 2, 2026
It had been a particularly interesting lesson, since all of us girls had to learn how to take someone down while wearing a gigantic hoop skirt from the 1800s.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
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.
