Shirk
[ʃɜːk]
Definition
(v. t.) To procure by petty fraud and trickery; to obtain by mean solicitation.
(v. t.) To avoid; to escape; to neglect; -- implying unfaithfulness or fraud; as, to shirk duty.
(v. i.) To live by shifts and fraud; to shark.
(v. i.) To evade an obligation; to avoid the performance of duty, as by running away.
(n.) One who lives by shifts and tricks; one who avoids the performance of duty or labor.
Checked by Debbie
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. Avoid (in a mean way), evade, get off from.
Editor: Samantha
Definition
v.t. to avoid get off or slink away from.—n. Shir′ker.—adj. Shir′ky.
Checked by Clarice
Examples
- Face to face with the Englishman, however, he did not shirk the combat, but, whirling his sword with a fierce cry, dashed boldly at his enemy. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- Common men cannot shirk world politics and at the same time enjoy private freedom; but it has taken them countless generations to learn this. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- I am the Relieving Officer appointed by eternal ordinance to do my work; I am not held in estimation according as I shirk it. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- For if a nation declares it has reached its majority by instituting self-government, then it cannot shirk responsibility. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Now, that's shirking. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- Then the sleepless Boots went shirking round from door to door, gathering up at each the Bluchers, Wellingtons, Oxonians, which stood outside. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- I would be a poor wife for an English lord were I to be responsible for his shirking a plain duty. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- Shirking won't do for me. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- They played no blind-man's buff; they dealt not in whist; they shirked not the irksome journal, for alas! Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
Checker: Raymond