skirt
Americannoun
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skirts
plural
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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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skirts,
present (3rd person singular)
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skirted,
past participle, past
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skirting
present participle
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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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skirts,
present (3rd person singular)
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skirted,
past participle, past
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skirting
present participle
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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.
See Examples For:
Does “Don’t Say Good Luck” skirt around the grim realities of cancer as cavalierly as it paints a Pinterest mood-board vision of high school?
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
"Not only are we protecting our physical borders from unlawful crossings, but we are also preventing immigration fraud schemes that are just another way to skirt the immigration laws of the United States," Blanche said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
These cryptic posts are meant to skirt secrecy rules, since officials’ names and résumés generally aren’t considered sensitive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
But even some of the grants slated to fund more traditional human rights projects skirt federal requirements for competitive bidding that are meant to deter waste, fraud and abuse.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2026
In the darkness of her parlor, Sarah Taylor felt a tug at her skirt, a toddler’s body pressed against her knees.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
Ken Billington’s lighting and Constance Hoffman’s costumes, which featured swirling flared skirts in different candy-colored plaids for the female chorus, added to the effect, as did Ms. Zambello’s direction, which emphasized thrust rather than sweetness.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Such restraint today seems as quaint as poodle skirts and “I Love Lucy.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
“There weren’t that many houses. We had the long skirts and long hair, and it was very casual. You’d go to a love-in or a concert.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
Years before “Barbie” stormed movie houses, Elle was the subversive answer to whether a woman’s love of makeup, pastel colors, skirts and heels negated her feminism.
From Salon ● Jul. 6, 2026
He took a final steadying breath and walked past a group of women in flowery skirts and several college-aged kids who looked like they hadn’t slept in days.
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
Hawaii has been hit by flash floods and mudslides that have swept away homes after category one Hurricane Lala skirted Big Island over the weekend, leaving one person dead.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
Hawaii was menaced by Hurricane Fausto last month, before the storm weakened and skirted north of the island chain.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
We skirted Penny Island, where native Pomo people lived and farmed for generations before immigrants from Europe arrived.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Economists say carmakers have either shortened or skirted the usual temporary summer layoffs to retool their plants because of robust sales.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
I had been looking at the road that skirted the shore for guards but did not see any.
From "A Farewell To Arms" by Ernest Hemingway
Giant container ships ply sea lanes skirting the archipelago's southern tip, where roughly a third of global maritime trade transits between Asia, Africa, the Gulf and the Red Sea.
From Barron's ● May 18, 2026
Just over a three-hour drive south, skirting the Rhine until you hit the Swiss border, heading into an Alpine gateway towards the turquoise waters of Lake Thun, footballing folklore is being scribed.
From BBC ● Mar. 16, 2026
The fleet is made up of ageing tankers that carry Russia's oil and gas around the world, skirting Western restrictions.
From Barron's ● Mar. 15, 2026
China this summer sent a cargo ship to the Polish port of Gdansk by skirting the North Pole, a route twice as fast as travel times using the Suez Canal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 30, 2025
The previous season, she had been so impressed by Prince’s talent on the field that she allowed him to get away with skirting the team rules.
From "Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference" by Warren St. John
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.
