SHIRKING • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Shirking

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/ʃˈərkɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Shirk v. t. (past & past part. shirked; pres. part. shirking)

To procure by petty fraud and trickery; to obtain by mean solicitation. "You that never heard the call of any vocation,... that shirk living from others, but time from Yourselves."

To avoid; to escape; to neglect; implying unfaithfulness or fraud; as, to shirk duty. "The usual makeshift by which they try to shirk difficulties."

Shirk v. i.

To live by shifts and fraud; to shark.

To evade an obligation; to avoid the performance of duty, as by running away. "One of the cities shirked from the league."

See images of 'Shirking'

Etymology of 'Shirking'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Shirking" Quotes from Famous Books

... little shorn lamb, doing their best to aid in helping to eliminate her awful past—a task by no means easy. Poor unfortunate, sinned-against little Rosa! Her life forever blighted through the shifting and shirking of responsibility on the part of the older sister, who had promised the dying mother to carefully guard and guide the little helpless girl. Poor ruined child! Shunned, whispered about and pointed at by her schoolmates, she, sensitive girl that she was, suffered so intensely from such ...

— Fifteen Years With The Outcast • Mrs. Florence (Mother) Roberts

... copying some one else's problems and shirking your own daily work. When the exams come you're not 'in it'; you just have to 'go way back and sit down,'" and the roguish dimples played in her cheeks as the slang phrases slipped glibly from her tongue. ...

— Katherine's Sheaves • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon

... seeming lack of interest, she had suddenly spoken—telling him what she had all the evening nerved herself to say. Her voice had faltered once or twice but she had steadied it bravely and gone on to the end, shirking nothing, evading nothing, dealing faithfully with the whole sex problem as far as she was able—outraging her own reserve that her son might learn the pitfalls and temptations that would assuredly lie in wait for him, sacrificing her own modesty that ...

— The Shadow of the East • E. M. Hull

... to impress upon you children"—here she turned abruptly to the little Delaneys—"is that lessons are lessons, and play is play. During lesson-time I allow no wandering thoughts, I allow no attempts at shirking your duties. The tasks I set you will be carefully chosen according to your different abilities, and I can assure you beforehand that learned they must be. If I find that they are not carefully prepared I shall punish ...

— A Little Mother to the Others • L. T. Meade

... purposes, which, to tell the truth; were frequently coming round; for the liquor was both better and cheaper than in these degenerate days. I shall never forget the start which the sonorous voice of the chairman gave me, as he bawled out,—"None of that, Jenkins; we can't have any shirking here; you must take one side or the other,"—and he did, amidst the tumultuous laughter with which the Hall resounded. The contest was a good-natured one, and I have no doubt which party proved victorious, considering that the prevailing sentiment of the town was pretty well ...

— Old New England Traits • Anonymous

More quotes...