SHIRK
What does "SHIRK" mean?
To avoid or neglect a duty, responsibility, or unpleasant task.
Meanings
- To deliberately avoid doing work or fulfilling a duty. He never shirked the hard jobs, even when no one was watching.
- To evade or shrink from something difficult or unwelcome. A good leader does not shirk responsibility when a plan fails.
Did you know?
- Before it meant dodging work, 'shirk' in the 1600s meant to live by trickery or sponge off others - the dodger of duty grew out of an earlier sense of the petty con artist.
Word origin
Recorded from the 17th century, possibly from German 'Schurke' meaning a rogue or scoundrel; originally meaning to practise fraud or sponge off others before settling into the sense of dodging work.
Remember it
SHIRK rhymes with 'work' but refuses it: a shirker would rather lurk than do the work.
A little poem
The unwashed cup waits patient by the sink-
a small thing shirked grows louder than you think.
couplet
Wordplay
- The employee who kept avoiding his to-do list got promoted to management. Apparently he was a natural at shirk-life balance.
What it teaches
What you shirk does not vanish; it waits, and usually returns heavier than when you left it.
Quick facts
What does SHIRK mean?
To avoid or neglect a duty, responsibility, or unpleasant task.
Is SHIRK a valid word?
Yes — SHIRK is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is SHIRK?
SHIRK has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does SHIRK come from?
Recorded from the 17th century, possibly from German 'Schurke' meaning a rogue or scoundrel; originally meaning to practise fraud or sponge off others before settling into the sense of dodging work.
What can SHIRK teach us?
What you shirk does not vanish; it waits, and usually returns heavier than when you left it.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.