1. To produce a shrill, piercing sound, especially the sound of bagpipes.
2. To play the bagpipes or perform a piece of music on them.
3. A shrill sound, especially the high-pitched sound of bagpipes.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- bagpipes skirl
- skirl across the moor
- skirl in the wind
On the page
Bagpipes skirled beyond the mist, though no procession was visible on the road.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- skirl
- Past tense
- skirled
- Past participle
- skirled
- Present participle
- skirling
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- skirl
- Present continuous
- am/is/are skirling
- Present perfect
- have/has skirled
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been skirling
- Past
- skirled
- Past continuous
- was/were skirling
- Past perfect
- had skirled
- Past perfect continuous
- had been skirling
- Future
- will skirl
- Future continuous
- will be skirling
- Future perfect
- will have skirled
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been skirling
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: horror / gothic literary. Lexical Type: Word. Forms: skirl; skirls; skirled; skirled; skirling. Noun singular skirl; plural skirls. Commonness: uncommon (editorial estimate; not a corpus frequency statistic). Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1; numbered fields keep each relevant meaning separate. Research distinction: Merriam-Webster: bagpipes emit high shrill tone; play music on bagpipes; noun high shrill chanter sound. Forms skirled, skirling, skirls. Individual writer usefulness checked for a distinct physical, ritual, facial or acoustic function. Definitions/examples are original; genre suitability is not an inherent emotional rating. Writing functions: precise physical or ritual description, gothic scene construction. Third-person singular: skirls.
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