(v. t.) To procure by petty fraud and trickery; to obtain by mean solicitation.
(v. t.) To avoid; to escape; to neglect; -- implying unfaithfulness or fraud; as, to shirk duty.
(v. i.) To live by shifts and fraud; to shark.
(v. i.) To evade an obligation; to avoid the performance of duty, as by running away.
(n.) One who lives by shifts and tricks; one who avoids the performance of duty or labor.
Example Sentences:
(1) Others have found more striking-power, or more simple poetry, but none an interpretation at once so full (in the sense of histrionic volume) and so consistently bringing all the aspects together, without any shirking or pruning away of what is inconvenient.
(2) A new report is just another excuse for those in power to shirk responsibility, to blame the people they have already degraded once and who cannot defend themselves.
(3) Time at home, alone, without chores, is still often felt as shirking responsibility.
(4) He’s taking a lot of stick at the moment – as everyone is – but it is a measure of him that he fronts it up every day and doesn’t shirk it.
(5) Shirk said one-party China – a country most still associate with little more than economic success and autocratic governance – saw a chance to rebrand itself as a benevolent great power acting in the common good.
(6) Neville has work ahead; the good news is that he will not shirk it.
(7) While some bosses shirk from defending their personal pay deals, Horta-Osório – whose 10-strong management team cashed in on £23m through the same bonus scheme – does not.
(8) Schreiber points out that some of the debates against the ERA were about "masculinity run amok": "Phyllis Schlafly said if we were are treated as equals, then men will shirk their responsibilities," she notes.
(9) Poon said Beijing was attempting to shift the focus on to how much medical attention Liu was receiving to shirk responsibility for its “cold-blooded” treatment of the democracy activist.
(10) They chased every ball, never shirked a tackle and, when they needed a centre-forward to show composure and experience, they had a 32-year-old from Stoke City, with silver flecks in his hair, who passed the test with distinction.
(11) Focusing on glorifying and eternalising the leaders and taking refuge in God and inserting them into hidden shirk [idolatry] through immortalising ephemeral, temporary personalities.
(12) At the same time, we will not shirk from vigorously defending our right and proper role to expose wrongdoing in the public interest."
(13) Are workers seen as a burden, a cost, people who would rather skive and shirk responsibilities, and who have to be supervised rigorously at all times?
(14) Jones said Australia was engaging with the UN with goodwill on how best to tackle the crisis, and not on how to shirk its international responsibilities.
(15) As Republicans we will not shirk our responsibility and we believe that it is now necessary for us to take this lead in bringing the agreement to its conclusion.
(16) "My desire to devolve authority has nothing to do with a wish to shirk responsibility.
(17) But he has never been one to shirk a challenge, choosing to serve in Vietnam so he could stay in the US after moving to New York in the 1960s.
(18) Some European partners are shirking from the task,” she said.
(19) However, human rights groups say Britain is shirking its legal responsibilities – fearful that the route could be seen as a “back door” to Britain – and coercing people into staying put while paying Cyprus to house and feed them.
(20) It’s not me shirking my responsibilities, I take internet security seriously, but I can’t always protect myself against an army of online fraud experts.
Skulk
Definition:
(v. i.) To hide, or get out of the way, in a sneaking manner; to lie close, or to move in a furtive way; to lurk.
(n.) A number of foxes together.
(n.) Alt. of Skulker
Example Sentences:
(1) Maybe it’s because they are skulking, sedentary creatures, tied to their post; the theatre critic isn’t going anywhere other than the stalls, and then back home to write.
(2) In keeping with the long tradition of skulking secrecy, the appointment was not made public until 2000, by which time he was a lieutenant-general and, to those in the know, second only to Mubarak.
(3) Parties that skulked in the shadows, playingdown their sympathies with fascism and Nazism are re-emerging, having given themselves a PR facelift.
(4) His colleagues are shown as being manipulated by skulking professional agitators and to some it seemed more like a political statement than a human story about the crushing of an individual.
(5) There are hundreds of tired, hungry young men in makeshift camps, skulking in corners, massing with intent, playing a dangerous, occasionally violent game of cat and mouse with the authorities.
(6) Then the assembled journalists (I count six) skulk off to the next job of the day 9.51am GMT Taking a closer look at the ONS announcement .
(7) They skulk away for a good think, and often stay away for days.
(8) Did I skulk in dodgy pubs with bull-necked men with shaved heads and bulldogs?
(9) "He'd then end up on the back of the toaster for twelve months before skulking back to the fridge and hoping that everyone forgets about his former delusions regarding his abilities and profile."
(10) Because of Ofcom rules, Openreach gets to skulk behind the service providers who have to deal with customer complaints on its behalf.
(11) You look at these augurs and realise things were never going to go well, and that's before even mentioning Stan's conspicuous skulking into the Project K bunker.
(12) The sight of Schalke players celebrating wildly on the turf at the final whistle, all hugs and punches of the air, while the hosts skulked off down the tunnel told its own story.
(13) Neither innocent nor guilty, you could skulk here for decades, while the alderman's daughter grows old: between step and step, grow old yourself, slip the noose of your name.
(14) For my part, skulking under a canopy of trees, I tried to even out a tennis court that was badly misshapen.
(15) That skulking between planes was an odd manoeuvre, very unlike his customary strutting.
(16) Their lament, orchestrated by Saudi Arabia, is music to the ears of tone-deaf neocons and oil executives everywhere: Iran is the snake skulking under every stone – backing Hamas in Gaza , Hezbollah in Lebanon , and the blood-drenched Alawite regime in Syria .
(17) They had no beer licence, but I got a cup of coffee and the owner told me in rich, mellifluous Irish how the place was normally teeming with Gaeilgeoirí (Irish speakers) but because it was a sunny day no one wanted to be skulking underground and so I was the only customer.
(18) I didn't want a life where I was skulking around with boxes of weed and meeting dodgy people.
(19) Didier Drogba , perhaps inevitably, had taken centre-stage in the dressing room while, across the corridor, a steady stream of crestfallen Bayern players skulked out into the night.
(20) Even while he has relished a return to the spotlight in recent months thanks to his assertive stance on the border crisis , the threat of serious legal trouble has been skulking in the background.