Did you know?
Not many musical instruments are honored with their very own verb. But then, not many musical instruments emit a sound quite like 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" —used of screeching winds, wee bairns, 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 or bagpipe enthusiasts.
Examples of skirl in a Sentence
James Hookway, WSJ, 4 June 2023
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, 1 Feb. 2020
Cite this Entry
“Skirl.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/skirl. Accessed 5 Jul. 2025.
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