shirk

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To avoid, especially a duty, responsibility, etc.

   To 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 future / is gonna find you!"
2. 2

   To evade an obligation

   To 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.
3. 3

   To procure by petty fraud and trickery

   To 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.
4. ›+ 3 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      One who shirks, who avoids a duty or responsibility.

   2. 5

      The unforgivable sin of association (claiming something or someone can share in the…

      The unforgivable sin of association (claiming something or someone can share in the oneness of God).

   3. 6

      A surname.

The neighborhood

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• synonymprocrastinate
• neighborlazy
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• neighborplay truant
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