Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of emitting a shrill sound; also, a shrill sound; a skirl.
Wiktionary
- v. present participle of skirl.
- n. UK, dialect A small trout or salmon.
- n. A shrill cry or sound; a crying shrilly; a skirl.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Prov. Eng. & Scot. A shrill cry or sound; a crying shrilly; a skirl.
- n. (Zoöl.), Prov. Eng. A small trout or salmon; -- a name used loosely.
Examples
“Queen Victoria herself used to have the pipers file out before her at Balmoral to the "skirling" of "Bonnie Dundee," "Over the Water to Charlie," and "Wha'll Be King but Charlie!”
“Watched as he pulled off her elastic, tipped back his head, and held his arms out cruciform, an angular scarecrow in a scrim of skirling snow.”
“Arkangel have done very well here, by taking the rare but very obvious course of setting the play in, er, Scotland, with appropriate accents and skirling of bagpipes; this gives the whole play an extra edge that I had never really considered properly before.”
“The rider stumbled, glowing fragments of its flesh skirling out from it like fireflies.”
“There was a massive shout from the floor below, an outbreak of skirling pipes, and the solemn scene dissolved into a heaving surge of riotous yelling.”
“To acknowledge we'd lost our way under Cheney-Bush, marching off in every direction with drums pounding, violins skirling and banners flying, is to acknowledge the need we had and still have for salvation.”
“To acknowledge we've lost our way, marching off in every direction with drums pounding, violins skirling and banners flying, is to acknowledge the need for salvation.”
“I don't know why, I really don't, but I cannot hear the keening and droning and skirling of a set of pipes without choking up.”
May The Bubble In Your Chest Not Choke You To Death - And Other Lovely Irish Blessings Upon You
““Od guide us, wull ye haud your skirling tongues!” said”
“Strings were tamped down and inner voices brought out -- in the "Ride of the Valkyries," for example, it was not the blaring brass theme that caught the ear, but the skirling woodwind figures above it.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘skirling’.
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Trout
trout, golden trout, rainbow trout, Trout Fishing in ..., Kilgore Trout, Trout Quintet, Trout Mask Replica, steelhead, cutthroat trout, lake trout, trout cod, Mackinaw trout and 61 more...
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Stalking Darkness
Words and phrases from Lynn Flewelling's book, Stalking Darkness.
inquest, halyard, catamount, occlude, founder, more, grouse, grapple, water butt, antepenultimate, palimpsest, hob and 196 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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thekatespanos's list
pomposity, gaggle, scintilla, lemming, bilk, vanquish, conflate, plenary, verisimilitude, perspicacious, rattletrap, obdurate and 325 more...
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Learned words
Words which are highly likely to be found in the work of learned writers.
ailurophile, labyrinthine, lagniappe, colleague, anechoic, reglets, fluctuations, scalar, implicit, constitute, mortification, ambassadors and 629 more...
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Are we there yet?
These have some growing up to do.
colt, foal, kitten, cub, pup, heifer, larva, imago, veliger, trochophore, grub, maggot and 178 more...
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Storm Thief
Words and phrases from Chris Wooding's book, Storm Thief.
chit, lean-to, panopticon, hobnail, periscope, shanty, flout, racket, lathe, dynamo, kiln, gurn and 44 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for skirling.
chained_bear Not me, pterodactyl, though I have heard caterwauling used to describe pipes too. :) Jan 10, 2011
bilby There were a fearful skirling that night the terrier with ringworms was strangled by cross-dressing Angus, aye. Jan 10, 2011
pterodactyl I've only ever heard this word used to describe the sound of bagpipes. Have any of you heard it used to describe something else? Jan 9, 2011