skirt
[skurt]
- 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.
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- 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).
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- to be or lie on or along the edge of something.
- to move along or around the border of something.
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Origin of skirt
Synonyms
See more synonyms for skirt on Thesaurus.com13. evade, shun, circle, bypass.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for skirted
Contemporary Examples
If this is truly the case, the E.U. will have skirted both its own rules and, by extension, Israel's Boycott Law.
“They skirted around it by saying he was a man of faith,” said “Reality Steve” Carbone, who writes about The Bachelor on his blog.
Filming stalled, then continued without him with a six-episode prequel that skirted around the titular character.
Bailey also writes that Palin skirted the law during the Troopergate affair.
But as it turns out, Brown had his own Latin misadventure, one that may have skirted the law.
Historical Examples
We found the road, and the village of Horton, and skirted the last, until all was clear.
Ned MyersJames Fenimore Cooper
Tired and weighted, she dared not try the leap; she skirted around.
Johnny BearE. T. Seton
He was passing a thicket that skirted the road, when a cautious "Hist!"
They skirted the house and found the stable door open as Blake had left it.
Mistress WildingRafael Sabatini
He could see its face through the leaves as he skirted the shore of the lagoon.
The RescueJoseph Conrad
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
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- (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)
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Word Origin
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 skirted
skirt
n.
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.
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skirt
v.
c.1600, "to border, form the edge of," from skirt (n.). Meaning "to pass along the edge" is from 1620s. Related: Skirted; skirting.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper