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 skirted

dodge, elude, sidestep, evade, ignore, bypass, circumvent, fringe, rim, bound, surround, edge, verge, hem, flank, margin, define, skip, equivocate, duck

Examples from the Web for skirted

Contemporary Examples of skirted

If this is truly the case, the E.U. will have skirted both its own rules and, by extension, Israel's Boycott Law.
Why is the E.U. So Willing to Compromise on Settlement Guidelines?
Matt Lerner
October 25, 2013
“They skirted around it by saying he was a man of faith,” said “Reality Steve” Carbone, who writes about The Bachelor on his blog.
Why Did ‘The Bachelor’ Hide Sean Lowe’s Born-Again Virginity?
Ramin Setoodeh
March 12, 2013
Filming stalled, then continued without him with a six-episode prequel that skirted around the titular character.
Spartacus Hero Liam McIntyre’s Unlikely Rise into the Role
Adam Auriemma
January 27, 2012
Bailey also writes that Palin skirted the law during the Troopergate affair.
Inside the Sarah Palin Tell-All Book
Shushannah Walshe
February 22, 2011
But as it turns out, Brown had his own Latin misadventure, one that may have skirted the law.
Jerry Brown's Castro Trouble
A. L. Bardach
October 5, 2010

Historical Examples of skirted

We found the road, and the village of Horton, and skirted the last, until all was clear.
Ned Myers
James Fenimore Cooper
Tired and weighted, she dared not try the leap; she skirted around.
Johnny Bear
E. T. Seton
He was passing a thicket that skirted the road, when a cautious "Hist!"
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 364, February 1846
Various
They skirted the house and found the stable door open as Blake had left it.
Mistress Wilding
Rafael Sabatini
He could see its face through the leaves as he skirted the shore of the lagoon.
The Rescue
Joseph Conrad

British Dictionary definitions for skirted

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 skirted

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.

skirt

c.1600, "to border, form the edge of," from skirt (n.). Meaning "to pass along the edge" is from 1620s. Related: Skirted; skirting.