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Definition
to avoid something — such as a duty or responsibility- She began to shirk her duties and turned to drinking to help deal with the pain.
shirk = avoid
- She is motivated, a hard worker, and will even pick up the slack from co-workers who shirk their duties.
- I cannot shirk the honest truth.
- There he had half killed an insubordinate young elephant who was shirking his fair share of work.Rudyard Kipling -- The Jungle Book
- He did his work in the same slow obstinate way as he had done it in Jones's time, never shirking and never volunteering for extra work either.George Orwell -- Animal Farm
- Nobody shirked — or almost nobody.George Orwell -- Animal Farm
- "Yes, looking at the sky, I thought that the dome that I see is not a deception, and then I thought something, I shirked facing something," he mused.Leo Tolstoy -- Anna Karenina
- She began to understand that she had a moral obligation to fire the Pole and that she was shirking it because she found it hard to do.Flannery O'Connor -- A Good Man is Hard to Find AND OTHER STORIES
- Joe had shirked saying good-by to him and Fay.Zane Grey -- The Rainbow Trail
- Incredibly, Parker was not held accountable for shirking his duties.Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard -- Killing Lincoln
- Shirking the point does them no good.Daphne du Maurier -- Rebecca
- You're still shirking it.Michael Crichton -- Jurassic Park
- You've had a long day — sorry, I know that doesn't begin to cover it — but that doesn't mean that you can shirk your responsibilities.Stephenie Meyer -- Eclipse
- "His ear's ripped," he points out accusingly, like I've shirked my duty.Rick Yancey -- The 5th Wave
- It is probably some unpleasantness and some purple of this sort which the first man is desirous of shirking.Victor Hugo -- Les Miserables
- If you good people prefer preaching and shirking to buying my weapons and fighting the rascals, don't blame me.George Bernard Shaw -- Major Barbara
- Then the sleepless Boots went shirking round from door to door, gathering up at each the Bluchers, Wellingtons, Oxonians, which stood outside.William Makepeace Thackeray -- Vanity Fair
- He's a great patriot, but he's rough and tough on men who shirk their duty.James Lincoln Collier -- My Brother Sam is Dead
- There isn't a kinder soul in Avonlea and she never shirks her share of work."Lucy Maud Montgomery -- Anne Of Green Gables
- I felt like I was letting them down, shirking my duty.Chris Kyle -- American Sniper
shirk = avoid
shirk = avoid
shirking = not doing
shirking = not doing a duty
shirked = didn't do their work