skirl

/skɜːl/US/skɜɹl/

skirl verb: to make a shrill sound, as of bagpipes. Also the alternative form of shirl.

Verb

skirl (third-person singular simple present skirls, present participle skirling, simple past and past participle skirled)

(Northern England, Scotland) To make a shrill sound, as of bagpipes.
- Come here, or stay where ye are, and skirl as loud ye can — it's a' ye're gude for — l say, ye auld deevil, skirl — skirl — louder — louder, woman — gar the gentles hear ye in the ha' — I have heard ye as far off as the Bass for a less matter.1819, Walter Scott, “The Bride of Lammermoor”, in Collection of Ancient and Modern British Authors, Volume 14, published 1839, page 91
- He gloom'd and he skirl'd, and, when in hard case, / He whiles gae his mother a yerk on the face;1829, James Hogg (as the Ettrick Shepherd), The p and the q, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 26, page 693

skirl (plural skirls)

(Northern England, Scotland) A shrill sound, as of bagpipes.
- To a resounding wail headed by the King-Kong skirl, all gangs joined in hauling in the net.1977, Raja Proctor, The Illicit Immigrant, page 92
- 'Have we found a son only to lose him?' she cried, 'And what for? For the skirl of the pipes, is it?[…]'2003, Michael Morpurgo, The Last Wolf, page 26
A blast (of wind-blown snow or rain); a gust (especially if accompanied by snow or rain, or a shill or whistling sound).
- The wind can blow the bulk of a skirt between a woman's legs, or wrap her in a twist, or billow underneath so skirls of wind touch faintly, delightfully. Some women hear skirts murmuring or sighing, or conversing with the flesh they cover. But most skirts drape in silence, the silence of slow snow...1996 05, Gray Jacobik, “Skirts”, in Michael Pettit, editor, The Writing Path 2: Poetry and Prose from Writers' Conferences, University of Iowa Press, →ISBN, page 75
- Skirls of snow swept over the pavements, and in the roadway the tracks of cars were lined with brownish slush.2007 March 6, John Banville, Christine Falls: A Novel, Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, page 307

skirl is also the alternative form of shirl.

They were greeted with applause, medals and the skirl of bagpipes from our lone piper - a sound some told us encouraged tired legs for the last half-mile as the pipes could be heard on the mountain.2024 August 7, Paul Bigland, “'3 Peaks by Rail': ain't no mountain high enough”, in RAIL, number 1015, page 51:
The wind can blow the bulk of a skirt between a woman's legs, or wrap her in a twist, or billow underneath so skirls of wind touch faintly, delightfully.1996 05, Gray Jacobik, “Skirts”, in Michael Pettit, editor, The Writing Path 2: Poetry and Prose from Writers' Conferences, University of...
Skirls of wind whisked the rain around us, blew it into our jet-lagged faces.2012 June 26, Glen Duncan, Talulla Rising, Vintage, →ISBN:
... skirls of snow have settled in the mountains and the first winter thunderstorms have come and gone.2015 August 16, Lawrence Durrell, From the Elephant's Back: Collected Essays & Travel Writings, University of Alberta, →ISBN:

Verb
third-person singular present	skirls
present participle	skirling
past participle	skirled
past	skirled
Noun
plural	skirls

Originally from Scots and Northern English dialects (as a verb), probably of Old Norse origin; ultimately imitative.

Also from Scots and Northern English dialects.

25 more rhymesFewer rhymes

What does skirl mean?: Skirl means to make a shrill sound, as of bagpipes.
How do you use skirl in a sentence?: They were greeted with applause, medals and the skirl of bagpipes from our lone piper - a sound some told us encouraged tired legs for the last half-mile as the pipes could be heard on the mountain.
What part of speech is skirl?: Skirl can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce skirl?: Skirl is pronounced /skɜːl/ (UK).
What is the past tense of skirl?: The past tense of skirl is skirled.

Adapted from Wiktionary: skirl (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-skirl.wav.

Cite this entry: “skirl.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/skirl. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.