Standard Lemma guide

shirking

noun · verb · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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  • CMU ARPABET: SH ER1 K IH0 NG Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The act of one who shirks.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • 1906-1907, Mark Twain, Chapters from My Autobiography Autobiography [...] inevitably consists mainly of extinctions of the truth, shirkings of the truth, partial revealments of the truth, with hardly an instance of plain straight truth [...]

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

present participle and gerund of shirk

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: form-of, gerund, participle, present

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

the evasion of work or duty

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: slacking, soldiering, goofing off, goldbricking

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: evasion, escape, dodging

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.