skirr

present singular third person skirrs · participle present skirring · participle past skirred · past skirred

1. intransitiveTo leave hastily; to flee, especially with a whirring sound

   Our left wing, when they occupied the hills, saw four or five hundred Turks 'skirr away' in one body, and the machine-gunners found a target.

   1919, EJ Thompson, Beyond Baghdad, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2006

   1 more example

   … while at the same moment, whir-r-r! up sprung a bevy of twenty quail, at least, startling me for the moment by the thick whirring of their wings, and skirring over the underwood right toward Archer.

   1851, Frank Forester, (Please provide the book title or journal name), HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2006

2. To make a whirring sound.

   ... but that they had no thought to let the thing go unnoticed was quickly evidenced by the skirring of motors upon the landing-stage and the quick shooting airward of a long-lined patrol boat.

   1920, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Thuvia, Maiden of Mars, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008

3. transitiveTo search about in, scour

   The gates of Granada once more poured forth legions of light scouring cavalry, which skirred the country up to the very gates of the Christian fortresses, sweeping off flocks and herds.

   1851, Washington Irving, Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2009

4. to pass over quickly, skim

   I had flown in a helicopter with Javits and Bobby Kennedy. I was skirring around New York like an ephemerid, my jacket lined with jolly psychedelic green.

   1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 51