Word.ws English Dictionary

skirling

/ˈskɜːlɪŋ/US/ˈskɝlɪŋ/

skirling is the present participle and gerund of skirl.

Noun

skirling (plural skirlings)

  1. (UK, dialectal) A small trout or salmon.
  2. (Northern England, Scotland) A shrill cry or sound; a crying shrilly; a skirl.
    • When the skirling of the pipes cleft the air his cold eyes softened.1885, Juliana Horatia Ewing, The Story of a Short Life

Meaning of skirl

Verb

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

  1. (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

See all 3 meanings of skirl

Forms of skirling

pluralskirlings

Questions about skirling

What does skirling mean?
Skirling means a small trout or salmon.
What is skirling the present participle and gerund of?
Skirling is the present participle and gerund of skirl.
What part of speech is skirling?
Skirling is a noun.
How do you pronounce skirling?
Skirling is pronounced /ˈskɜːlɪŋ/ (UK).
What is the plural of skirling?
The plural of skirling is skirlings.

Words near skirling in the dictionary

  1. Skirian
  2. Skirians
  3. skirl
  4. skirled
  5. skirlie
  6. skirling
  7. skirlings
  8. skirls
  9. skirmish
  10. skirmished
  11. skirmisher

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: skirling (page history and authors); 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.

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

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