Nominal Forms
Infinitive: to skirt
Participle: skirted
Gerund: skirting
Indicative
Present
| I | skirt |
| you | skirt |
| he;she;it | skirts |
| we | skirt |
| you | skirt |
| they | skirt |
Perfect
| I | have skirted |
| you | have skirted |
| he;she;it | has skirted |
| we | have skirted |
| you | have skirted |
| they | have skirted |
Past
| I | skirted |
| you | skirted |
| he;she;it | skirted |
| we | skirted |
| you | skirted |
| they | skirted |
Pluperfect
| I | had skirted |
| you | had skirted |
| he;she;it | had skirted |
| we | had skirted |
| you | had skirted |
| they | had skirted |
Future
| I | will skirt |
| you | will skirt |
| he;she;it | will skirt |
| we | will skirt |
| you | will skirt |
| they | will skirt |
Future Perfect
| I | will have skirted |
| you | will have skirted |
| he;she;it | will have skirted |
| we | will have skirted |
| you | will have skirted |
| they | will have skirted |
Subjunctive
Present
| I | skirt |
| you | skirt |
| he;she;it | skirt |
| we | skirt |
| you | skirt |
| they | skirt |
Perfect
| I | have skirted |
| you | have skirted |
| he;she;it | have skirted |
| we | have skirted |
| you | have skirted |
| they | have skirted |
Imperfect
| I | skirted |
| you | skirted |
| he;she;it | skirted |
| we | skirted |
| you | skirted |
| they | skirted |
Pluperfect
| I | had skirted |
| you | had skirted |
| he;she;it | had skirted |
| we | had skirted |
| you | had skirted |
| they | had skirted |
Conditional
Present
| I | would skirt |
| you | would skirt |
| he;she;it | would skirt |
| we | would skirt |
| you | would skirt |
| they | would skirt |
Perfect
| I | would have skirted |
| you | would have skirted |
| he;she;it | would have skirted |
| we | would have skirted |
| you | would have skirted |
| they | would have skirted |
Imperative
| you | skirt |
| we | Let's skirt |
| you | skirt |
Verbs conjugated like 'skirt'
abandon,
abduct,
abear,
aberr,
abject,
abord,
abort,
abound,
abraid,
abray,
abrook,
abscind,
abscond,
absist,
absorb,
abstain,
abstract,
accend,
accent,
accept, etc. (List truncated at 20 verbs)
Verbs similar to 'skirt'
shirt,
skirl,
skirr,
skit,
smirt,
snirt,
spirt,
airt,
beskirt,
blirt,
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms
- to keep away from
- abjure, avert, avoid, dodge, duck, elude, escape, eschew, evade, evitate, get away from, mithe, shun, shy away from, sidestep, steer clear, waive
Additional Information
Phrasal Verbs
Etymology
1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-der.?
3. Proto-Germanic *skertaną
4. Proto-Germanic *skurtaz
5. Proto-Germanic *skurtijǭ
6. Old Norse skyrtabor.
7. Middle English skyrte
8. English skirt
9. From Middle English scyrt, skirt, skyrte, skyrthe, skyrtte, from Old Norse skyrta, from Proto-Germanic *skurtijǭ (“apron; skirt”), from *skurtaz (“short; deficient”), from *skertaną (“to cut off”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off; to divide”). Doublet of shirt.
10. Cognates
11. Cognate with Yola shoorth, skoorth (“shirt”), North Frisian Sjürt (“shirt”), Saterland Frisian Schoarte (“apron”), Dutch schort (“apron”), German Schürze (“apron”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk skjorte (“shirt”), Faroese skjúrta (“shirt”), Icelandic skyrta (“shirt”), Swedish skjorta (“shirt”), Irish sciorta (“skirt; strip”), Welsh sgert (“skirt”). See: Frisian, Saterlandic 'Schoarte', Faroese '
skjúrta', Icelandic '
skyrta', Swedish '
skjorta'.
Sample Sentences
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The plain was skirted by rows of trees.
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The lofty mountains roſe faint to the ſight and loſt their foreheads in the diſtant ſkies: the little hills, cloathed in darker green and ſkirted with embroidered vales, diſcovered the ſecret haunts of kids and bounding roes. [1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iv:]
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The railway, which is single track throughout, skirts the left bank of the estuary of the River Colne, and was washed out over a length of about three miles. [1953 December, “Brightlingsea trains to be Restored”, in Railway Magazine, page 793:]
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skirt a mountain
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An enormous man and woman (it was early-closing day) were stretched motionless, with their heads on pocket-handkerchiefs, side by side, within a few feet of the sea, while two or three gulls gracefully skirted the incoming waves, and settled near their boots. [1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:]
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As we skirted the shores of the Dornoch Firth, between Tain and Bonar Bridge, the views across the water to the Sutherland mountains were particularly fine in the early morning sunshine. [1950 January, Arthur F. Beckenham, “With British Railways to the Far North”, in Railway Magazine, page 6:]
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After Nanhsi, head into the hills again as you skirt Tsengwen Reservoir on a roller coaster of steep grades. [1994, Roger Grigsby, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China's East Coast (China by Bike), The Mountaineers, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 108:]
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A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays. […] This would also let high-speed trains skirt cities as moving platforms ferry passengers to and from the city centre. [2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):]
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I'd forgotten how scenic parts of the line are - the railway crosses a host of streams while meandering through meadows or skirting woodland. [2020 November 18, Paul Bigland, “New infrastructure and new rolling stock”, in Rail, page 51:]
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skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold [1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:]
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Near-synonym: circumvent
-
skirt the issue
-
skirt the law
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He skirted the issue of which parties to attend by staying at home instead.
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To be clear: I’m not saying Katyal helped a large corporation skirt child slavery laws, I’m just saying that he is the sort of guy who is a typical Burning Man attendee these days: the establishment in a goofy hat. [2023 September 5, Arwa Mahdawi, “Why all the Burning Man schadenfreude? Where do I start ...”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:]