skirt

From Middle English skyrte, from Old Norse skyrta, from Proto-Germanic *skurtijǭ. Doublet of shirt. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Skoarte (“apron”), Dutch schort (“apron”), German Schürze (“apron”), Danish skørt (“skirt”), Swedish skört (“hem of a jacket”), Norwegian skjørt (“skirt”).

• (UK) enPR: skû(r)t, IPA^(key): /skɜːt/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• (US) enPR: skûrt, IPA^(key): /skɚt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)t

skirt (plural skirts)

2. An article of clothing, usually worn by women and girls, that hangs from the waist and covers the lower part of the body.
   • c. 1907, O. Henry, The Purple Dress:

     "I like purple best," said Maida. "And old Schlegel has promised to make it for $8. It's going to be lovely. I'm going to have a plaited skirt and a blouse coat trimmed with a band of galloon under a white cloth collar with two rows of—"

3. The part of a dress or robe, etc., that hangs below the waist.
   • 1885, Ada S. Ballin, chapter XI, in The Science of Dress in Theory and Practice:

     The petticoats and skirts ordinarily worn are decidedly the heaviest part of the dress ; hence it is necessary that some reform should be effected in these.

   • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Red-Headed League:

     “It's all clear,” he whispered. “Have you the chisel and the bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!”
     Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts.

   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     I had sprung to my feet. I was speaking, and yet I had prepared no words. Tarp Henry, my companion, was plucking at my skirts and I heard him whispering, "Sit down, Malone! Don't make a public ass of yourself."

4. A loose edging to any part of a dress.
   • July 27, 1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian no. 118

     A narrow lace, or a small skirt of fine ruffled linen, which runs along the upper part of the stays before, and crosses the breast, being a part of the tucker, is called the modesty piece.

5. A petticoat.
6. (derogatory, slang) A woman.
   • 1931, Robert E. Howard, Alleys of Peril:

     "Mate," said the Cockney, after we'd finished about half the bottle, "it comes to me that we're a couple o' blightin' idjits to be workin' for a skirt."
     "What d'ya mean?" I asked, taking a pull at the bottle.
     "Well, 'ere's us, two red-blooded 'e-men, takin' orders from a lousy little frail, 'andin' the swag h'over to 'er, and takin' wot she warnts to 'and us, w'en we could 'ave the 'ole lot. Take this job 'ere now--"

7. (UK, colloquial) Women collectively, in a sexual context.
8. (UK, colloquial) Sexual intercourse with a woman.
9. The border; edge; margin; extreme part of anything.
   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     here in the skirts of the forest, like fringe upon a petticoat.

   • 1820, John Keats, “Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil. A Story from Boccaccio.”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, stanza XXXIX, page 68:

     I am a shadow now, alas! alas! / Upon the skirts of human-nature dwelling / Alone: [...]

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XLVI, page 69:

     That each, who seems a separate whole,
     ⁠Should move his rounds, and fusing all
     ⁠The skirts of self again, should fall
     Remerging in the general Soul,
     Is faith as vague as all unsweet: […]

10. The diaphragm, or midriff, in animals.^[1]

• (article of clothing): It was formerly common to speak of “skirts” (plural) rather than “a skirt”. In some cases this served to emphasize an array of skirts of underskirts, or of pleats and folds in a single skirt; in other cases it made little or no difference in meaning.

• → Japanese: スカート (sukāto)
• → Korean: 스커트 (seukeoteu)
• → Malay: skirt
• → Scottish Gaelic: sgiort

skirt (third-person singular simple present skirts, present participle skirting, simple past and past participle skirted)

1. To be on or form the border of.

   The plain was skirted by rows of trees.

   • 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:

     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.

2. To move around or along the border of; to avoid the center of.

   skirt a mountain

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1950 January, Arthur F. Beckenham, “With British Railways to the Far North”, in Railway Magazine, page 6:

     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.

   • 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):

     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.

   • 2020 November 18, Paul Bigland, “New infrastructure and new rolling stock”, in Rail, page 51:

     I'd forgotten how scenic parts of the line are - the railway crosses a host of streams while meandering through meadows or skirting woodland.

3. To cover with a skirt; to surround.
   • 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:

     skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold

4. (figurative) To avoid or ignore (something); to manage to avoid (something or a problem); to skate by (something).

   He skirted the issue of which parties to attend by staying at home instead.

   • 2023 September 5, Arwa Mahdawi, “Why all the Burning Man schadenfreude? Where do I start ...”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     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.

• “skirt”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Kirst, stirk

From English skirt.

skirt (plural skirt-skirt, informal 1st possessive skirtku, 2nd possessive skirtmu, 3rd possessive skirtnya)

1. skirt

• “skirt” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.

skirt

1. Alternative form of skyrte

skirt

1. indefinite neuter singular of skir