/ʃɜːk/, /ʃɝk/
OriginFirst use appears c. 1633, in the publications of Shackerley Marmion, apparently from association with shark (verb), or otherwise directly from German Schurke (“rogue, knave”).
- transitiveTo avoid, especially a duty, responsibility, etc.; to stay away from.
“the usual makeshift by which they try to shirk difficulties”
“Back in school, you ever get busted for trynna walk and have some administrator tell you / "Son, you can shirk your obligations, / and try to be different from your peers, / but responsibility, your f”
- intransitiveTo evade an obligation; to avoid the performance of duty, as by running away.
“If you have a job, don't shirk from it by staying off work.”
“September 7, 1830, Lord Byron, letter to Mr. Murray
One of the cities shirked from the league.”
“Shapiro and Stiglitz (1984) develop a dynamic model in which firms induce workers to work hard by paying high wages and threatening to fire workers caught shirking.”
- transitiveTo procure by petty fraud and trickery; to obtain by mean solicitation.
“You that never heard the call of any vocation, […] that shirk living from others, but time from yourselves.”
- One who shirks, who avoids a duty or responsibility.
“I may add here that, coming as the soldiers did from all avocations and stations in life, these details for fatigue often brought together men few of whom had any practical knowledge of the work in ha”
- uncountableThe unforgivable sin of association (claiming something or someone can share in the oneness of God).
“A person can have committed shirk in their lifetime and still find forgiveness (especially by saying the Shahada and becoming a Muslim). The concept is that if one dies in this state (as a mushrik, an”
Formsshirks(present, singular, third-person) · shirking(participle, present) · shirked(participle, past) · shirked(past) · shirks(plural) · Shirks(plural)