shirk

shirk is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 4 senses. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.To avoid; to escape; to neglect; -- implying unfaithfulness or fraud; as, to shirk duty. The usual makeshift by which they try to shirk difficulties. Hare.
  2. 2.To live by shifts and fraud; to shark.
  3. 3.To evade an obligation; to avoid the performance of duty, as by running away. One of the cities shirked from the league. Byron.
  4. 4.One who lives by shifts and tricks; one who avoids the performance of duty or labor.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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