shirked; shirking; shirks

intransitive verb

1
: to go stealthily : sneak
2
: to evade the performance of an obligation

transitive verb

: avoid, evade
shirk one's duty
shirker noun

Examples of shirk in a Sentence

He's too conscientious to shirk his duty. He never shirked from doing his duty. They did their duty without shirking or complaining.
Recent Examples on the Web Were your co-workers lazy and shirked their responsibilities? Jack Kelly, Forbes, 22 Feb. 2024 Gemini May 21 – June 20 Hidden resentment could provoke you to impulsively shirk your ongoing duties. Tarot.com, Baltimore Sun, 3 Feb. 2024 The temptation to cast it off, even if only for a day or a week, to distract ourselves with the fleeting giddiness that comes from shirking responsibility, was overwhelming. Amory Rowe Salem and Cheri Lucas Rowlands, Longreads, 9 Jan. 2024 Indonesia admits historical rights violations — but shirks accountability Prabowo, 72, served as a high-ranking commander in the Suharto era and was once married to the dictator’s daughter. Winda Charmila, Washington Post, 10 Feb. 2024 The department on Sunday cited high numbers of people being removed from the country, especially over roughly the last six months, and its efforts to tackle fentanyl smuggling as proof that DHS is not shirking its border duties. Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, arkansasonline.com, 29 Jan. 2024 Profiting from the latest craze while blaming bad people for misusing your tech is just a way of shirking responsibility. Geoffrey A. Fowler, Washington Post, 28 Dec. 2023 In the meantime, to make sure that the profit-seeking part of the company doesn’t shirk its commitment to ensuring the AI doesn’t get out of control, there’s that board, keeping an eye on things. Steven Levy, WIRED, 22 Nov. 2023 But the changes have done little to pacify its critics at the state and federal level, who contend the company has shirked its responsibility to protect its most vulnerable young users. Naomi Nix, Washington Post, 24 Oct. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'shirk.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

origin unknown

First Known Use

1681, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of shirk was in 1681

Dictionary Entries Near shirk

Cite this Entry

“Shirk.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shirk. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

shirk

verb
: to get out of doing especially what one ought to do
: avoid sense 3, evade
shirked their duty
shirker noun

More from Merriam-Webster on shirk

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