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 If college presidents get a pass, then why shouldn’t all institutional leaders in democratic society shirk their duties? Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, TIME, 19 Oct. 2024 To our national shame, Labour, like the Tories before it, looks set to shirk the biggest fiscal challenge facing Britain today: fixing social care, which has been in a mess for decades. The Week, theweek, 22 Sep. 2024 In each of these activities, the individual’s incentive is to shirk. John C. Goodman, Forbes, 19 Sep. 2024 Zoom out: Despite calls from members of their party to stop circulating the rumors and consistent reports that the claims were false, the GOP ticket doubled down and has since repeatedly shirked blame for the threats to Springfield that have ensued. Avery Lotz, Axios, 19 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for shirk 

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 31 Oct. 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

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!