1
as in avoided
to get or keep away from (as a responsibility) through cleverness or trickery
you always try to shirk paying your fair share of the bill by claiming you "forgot" your wallet
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in neglected
to leave undone or unattended to especially through carelessness
a deadbeat who has been shirking his duty to his family for years
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in snuck
to move about in a sly or secret manner
given the multitude of auditoriums at the multiplex, it's not too difficult for underaged kids to shirk into R-rated movies
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Recent Examples of shirked
In the court’s majority opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett forcefully pushed back against Jackson’s suggestion the court shirked on its duty to protect the people from government overreach.
—
Ella Lee, The Hill, 27 June 2025
Ella Lee, The Hill, 27 June 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shirked
Verb
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By contrast, Lai has avoided implying that there exists one China that includes Taiwan.—
STEPHEN WERTHEIM,
Foreign Affairs,
28 Oct. 2025
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Except for a few urgent medical issues, such as an infected cut, Reed avoided health care providers.—
Charlotte Huff,
NPR,
28 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Now, the department's union is joining calls for more funding, saying the city has neglected for years to fund repairs and maintenace.—
David Clarey,
jsonline.com,
21 Oct. 2025
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The Wisconsin native was charged with repairing bridges within the department, campus and community that Addazio had neglected or damaged.—
Sean Keeler,
Denver Post,
19 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Although there is wiggle-room for the inflationary temperature/energy scale to be a bit lower than the limit set by cosmic rays, the CMB limits on the maximum post-inflationary temperature cannot be evaded.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
22 Oct. 2025
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Ukraine’s armed forces said Storm Shadow missiles had evaded Russia’s air defenses and struck the site in Bryansk which produces gunpowder, explosives and rocket components.—
MSNBC Newsweek,
MSNBC Newsweek,
22 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Furthermore, when colonizers attempted to burn all evidence of Nkrumah’s time as a revolutionary leader, Hesse snuck his reels out of Ghana, and into a London vault, where the footage has spent decades inside, waiting to be digitized.—
Marcus Jones,
IndieWire,
25 Oct. 2025
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When Mumy was just a kid, Lockhart snuck him and his TV sister Cartwright into shows at the Whisky a Go Go during the height of the 1960s psychedelic scene.—
Wesley Stenzel,
Entertainment Weekly,
25 Oct. 2025
Verb
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And still, given that Spurs’ creative issues persist and Monaco peppered Vicario’s goal with 23 shots, seemingly slicing through a defence which had previously looked so secure with ease, Tottenham escaped with another away point.—
Elias Burke,
New York Times,
23 Oct. 2025
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In the finale of the fourth season of The Boys, Starlight escaped an attempt to round up all supes who went against Homelander’s vision to rule the world.—
Demetrius Patterson,
HollywoodReporter,
23 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The terrain was steep and mountainous, the forests were thick, and threats from buffalo and leopards lurked in the wilderness.—
Julia Jacobo,
ABC News,
1 Oct. 2025
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Was Blass’s mental block a sign of what lurked on the other side of these quotidian failures?—
Jonathan Blitzer,
New Yorker,
28 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The apple-munching Euphoria actor slipped into Tilda Swinton’s plush period dress from the ravishing 1992 drama, joined by Jeff Goldblum, Wicked’s wizard himself, in sparkly Gucci.—
Radhika Seth,
Vogue,
27 Oct. 2025
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Shares of Honeywell have slipped 4% this year.—
Lisa Kailai Han,
CNBC,
27 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Shirked.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shirked. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
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