▪ I. † shirk, n.1 Obs.
Also 7 shirke, sherk, shurk.
[Perh. a. G. schurke (earlier schork, schurk): see shark n.2]
A needy, disreputable parasite; one who makes a living by sponging on others, cheating at play, swindling, or the like; a sharper. = shark n.2 1.
| 1639 [J. Taylor] (Water P.) Divers Crabtree Lect. 164 You are an Asse, a Shirke, a Rooke. 1667–8 Pepys Diary 8 Mar., He is a shirke, who owns his owing me 10l. for his lady two or three years ago, and yet cannot provide to pay me. 1681 Hickeringill Char. Sham Plotter 2/1 When Shoals of these Shirks, these Tories and Sham-Plotters appear bare-fac't in any Land or Nation, they are as Fatal..as Sword-Fishes, Sharks, and Whales, when thrown up in the Thames. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Shurk, a Sharper. 1710 Medley No. 12 Some..may be reckon'd tame Creatures, such as are those Shirks that ply about Great Tables. 1730 Bailey (fol.), Shirk, a sharping Fellow that lies upon the Catch, as the Shark-fish. |
▪ II. shirk, n.2
(ʃɜːk)
[f. shirk v.]
1. One who shirks (work, obligations).
| 1818 Blackw. Mag. III. 402 He..Reviled the Dutchers as Poltroons and shirks. 1883 Jessopp Arcady iv, The shambling and scrofulous shirk whom you may find any night soaking at the pothouse. |
2. An act or the practice of shirking. rare.
| 1863 Sat. Rev. 29 Aug. 278/1 Small shirks may be apples of Sodom, but they clearly constitute with some people one of the main pleasures of life. 1877 Furnivall Leopold Shaks. Introd. 85 We saw the many shirks from doing his duty of which Hamlet was guilty. 1897 Daily News 3 June 5/7 Leisure—and shirk—have been the characteristics of the proceedings of this remarkable body. |
▪ III. † shirk, n.3 Obs. rare—1.
[Prob. a. Ger. dial. schirk (in Nemnich 1793).]
The sturgeon.
| 1705 Hickeringill Priest-cr. ii. ii. 27 For a Whale's Throat is narrower to my knowledge then a Fish (called a Shirk) but of two Yards long. |
▪ IV. shirk, v.
(ʃɜːk)
Also 7 sherke, shurk, shirke, 7–8 sherk.
[Belongs to shirk n.1; see shark v. 1.]
† 1. a. intr. To practise fraud or trickery, esp. instead of working as a means of living; to prey or sponge upon others; rarely to pilfer (from another). Obs. Cf. shark v.1 1 b.
| 1633 Marmion Fine Comp. iv. i. G 3 b, Thou shalt follow the Court like a Baboone, when a thousand proper fellowes shall sherke for their ordinary. [1638: see shirking vbl. n.] 1640 Harbottle Grimstone Sp. Ho. Comm. 18 Dec., He [sc. Abp. Laud] might have spent his time much better..than thus sherking and raking in the Tobacco Shops. 1655 tr. Sorel's Com. Hist. Francion iii. 74 How well he could practice the Lawes of pilfering, by sherking on his Disciples [orig. Fr. friponant sur ses disciples], to feast his friends. 1699 E. S―cy Country Gentl. Vade M. 77, I utterly lose my Pitty, when I see one of these Wretches shirking about in Rags. 1709 W. Reeves tr. Apol. Justin Martyr, Tertullian, & Min. Felix (1716) I. 4 The Platonist Amelius,..upon reading the first Verses of his [S. John's] Gospel, cry'd out, Per Jovem Barbarus iste cum Platone nostro sentit, By Jove this Barbarian has been shirking from our Master Plato. 1850 C. Mathews Moneypenny xviii, He saves him from a house a-fire, and..he sends him off next morning to shirk for himself. |
† b. trans. To obtain by cunning or by sponging. Also to shirk up. Obs. Cf. shark v.1 2.
| 1634 Bp. Rainbowe Labour 39 You that never heard the call of any Vocation..; that shirke living from others, but time from yourselves. 1672 Eachard Hobbs' St. Nat. Consid. 34 Small matter that was shirk'd up in France from some of Cartes's acquaintance, and spoyled in the telling. |
c. intr. To shift or fend for oneself. U.S.
| 1843 C. Mathews Various Writings 71/1 As for Harvest, let him shirk for himself. 1874 Rep. Vermont Board Agric. II. 422 They are then turned into the pasture to shirk for themselves. |
2. a. intr. To go evasively or slyly; to slink, to sneak away, out, etc. † rarely said of things.
| 1681 Trial of S. Colledge 25 Mr. Dugd... You said Rowley was gone, the Rogue was afraid of himself, he was shirked away. 1806 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) ix. xl, Trying often to harpoon a floating pat of butter, which, as often, slips aside, or ducks and shirks under your knife. 1818 G. Colman Two Parsons Poet. Vagaries (ed. 3) 154 Polyglot Behind the bed-curtain had got, Shirking, and dodging From his Co-Partner. 1850 Thackeray Pendennis lxi, He and his comrades had been obliged to shirk on board at night, to escape from their wives. 1867 R. Broughton Cometh up as Flower xxxiii, Sometimes..I managed to shirk out by myself..and dawdle..about the park. 1874 Baring-Gould Yorksh. Oddities I. 236, I..came shirking round towards t'back door i't' yard. |
† b. To withdraw or draw back through lack of courage from one's word or from an engagement.
| 1778 Crisp Let. to Miss Burney 8 Dec., Don't imagine..that I am retracting or shirking back from what I have said above. 1820 Byron Let. 7 Sept. in Moore Life (1839) 453/2 One of the cities shirked from the league. |
3. a. trans. To evade (a person, his conversation, acquaintance, etc.); to avoid meeting, to dodge, ‘give the slip’ to. Now rare or Obs.
| 1787 F. Burney Diary June (1842) III. 378 They have all a really most undue dislike of her, and shirk her conversation, and fly to one another, to discourse on hunting and horses. 1800 M. Edgeworth Belinda xvii, To punish her for shirking me, by the Lord, I'd [etc.]. 1815 Zeluca I. 393 See, see—he's going to shirk Lady Kitty—he pretends he don't see her coming up. 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. II. 121 Nor would I..throw the slightest obstacle in the way of the escape of any one of the slaves who may be about to shirk their masters. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 384/2 Us sailor chaps sometimes shirks the Custom-house lubbers, sharp as they are. |
b. At Eton: To avoid meeting (a master, a sixth-form boy) when out of bounds. Also absol.
| 1821 R. Durnford Rashleigh Letter-bag vi, in Etonian (1823) III. 182, I..began to consider..if I could have offended him by not shirking him out of bounds. 1869 Blake-Humfrey Eton Boating Bk. Introd. 1 The necessity of all but the Sixth Form being obliged to shirk the Masters, and of all the Lower Boys having to shirk the Sixth Form. 1910 Goldw. Smith Remin. iii. 38 If you met a master outside the nominal bounds you had to ‘shirk’, that is, to make a show of keeping out of sight. |
4. a. To evade (one's duty, work, obligations, etc.).
| 1785 Grose Dict. Vulgar T., Sherk, to sherk, to evade; to sherk one's duty. 1835 Marryat J. Faithful xxxviii, Father says we may, if we do our duty, and I don't mean to shirk mine. 1842 Miall in Nonconf. II. 377 They usually shirk the subject. 1861 Geo. Eliot Silas M. ix, Let him..shirk the resolute honest work that brings wages, and he will presently find himself [etc.]. 1880 L. Stephen Pope v. 126 This trick..was intended..to shirk responsibility. |
b. U.S. To shift (responsibility, etc.) on to or upon (another person). Also with off.
| 1845 Lowell Let. to C. F. Briggs 21 Aug., Lett. 1894 I. 111, I would almost give half the rest of my life if I might shirk off upon somebody else all that is generally considered the pleasant result of a literary reputation. 1863 W. Phillips Sp. xvi. 368 Having shirked it on to the North. |
c. absol. To practise evasion of work, one's duties, responsibilities, etc.
| 1853 Thackeray Eng. Hum. iii. (1900) 518 He was shirking at the tavern. 1865 J. G. Holland Plain Talk iv. 119 The disposition to shirk seems to be constitutional with the human race. 1886 W. H. Long Dict. I. Wight Dial., ‘He's ben and shirked off wi'out dooen his work’. ‘He's too windy by half, and he's sure to shirk out on't zomehow or nother’. |
Hence ˈshirking vbl. n. and ppl. a. Also ˈshirker, one who shirks (duty, work, etc.).
| 1634 Bp. Rainbowe Labour (1635) 40 Let this shirking generation be cast out. 1638 Holland 1st Disc. Navy (1896) 54 'Twere safer..to give them a certain competent fee, than by an uncertain reward to expose them to shirking [Penn MS. sharking]. 1668 Rolle Abridgment 53 You are a sherking Attorney. 1736 Disc. Witchcraft 42 These kind of shirking People, a Generation of impudent Liars. 1799 Geo. [IV] in Paget Papers (1896) I. 150, I can safely swear I never flinched one [glass],..& you well know I am not even upon indifferent occasions a Shirker. 1862 Rep. Publ. Schools Comm. (1864) III. 283 (Eton) Have you any opinion as to the system of shirking? 1877 Freeman Norm. Conq. (ed. 3) I. App. 621 Against plain facts and probabilities we have nothing to set except the shirkings and twistings of Dudo's rhetoric. 1883 Stevenson Treas. Isl. i. v, ‘Search him, some of you shirking lubbers’, he cried. 1884 Macm. Mag. Nov. 4/1 Lord Malmesbury..was no shirker of work. 1899 Shearman, etc. Football 242 Any shirking..must be suppressed at once. |