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Verb

Not every musical instrument is honored with its very own verb. But then, not every musical instrument emits a sound that quite matches that of a bagpipe. Depending on your ear, you might think bagpipes "give forth music," or you might be more apt to say they shriek. If you are of the latter opinion, your thinking aligns with the earliest sense of skirl - "to shriek." That early sense was used of screeching maids, winds, and the like. Scottish poet Robert Sempill first used it for bagpipes in the mid-1600s. The meaning of skirl has shifted over time, however, and these days you can use the verb without causing offense to bagpipers and bagpipe enthusiasts.

Examples of skirl in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun Then came the twirling, colorful, ruffled dresses of dancers from Grupo Folklorico de Bendiciones followed by the precision of the San Antonio Pipes & Drums, complete with the skirl of bagpipes and booming of drums. — Vincent T. Davis, ExpressNews.com, "The Old West comes alive on downtown streets at San Antonio’s Western Heritage Parade and Cattle Drive," 1 Feb. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'skirl.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.