skirted

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of skirt.

   The hikers skirted the marsh to keep their boots dry.

   He carefully skirted the topic during the interview.

   Note

   A regular verb form, shared by the past tense and the participle. Which sense of skirt is meant depends on the construction. In the passive, "the town is skirted by hills" means the hills form its border, and the adjective the "bordered" adjective grows from this use. "The issue was skirted" uses the figurative "avoid" sense, which gives the "evaded" adjective. The active voice usually means moving around the edge.

2. 2
   adjective

   Dressed in a skirt rather than pants.

   The skirted attendants escorted guests to their seats.

   She painted a skirted figure standing in an open doorway.

   Note

   Here the word describes the wearer, not the clothes: a skirted girl, skirted attendants. Naomi Guttman's Wet Apples, White Blood (2007) pictures a skirted girl doing cartwheels on the lawn, an image built on the skirt itself. Beskirted means the same thing. It takes no comparative, so no one is "more skirted" than someone else. When the skirt belongs to a garment or a chair, the word shifts to the "having a skirt" meaning.

3. 3
   adjective

   Built with a skirt-like covering or border around its lower part.

   A skirted armchair anchored the corner of the room.

   The decorator preferred skirted slipcovers for the antique chairs.

   Note

   In clothing, the word picks out the version cut with a skirt instead of trousers. A skirted suit is set against a pantsuit, and a skirted uniform against overalls. Jeanette S. Martin and Lillian H. Chaney's Global Business Etiquette (2012) uses that contrast as dress advice. Lynn Dumenil's The Second Line of Defense (2017) places skirted uniforms beside the pants and overalls that broke with convention.

4. 4
   adjective

   Edged or bordered along its sides.

   The skirted plateau, bounded on every side by cliffs, was hard to reach.

   A skirted valley opened beyond the ridge, hemmed by dense woodland.

   Similarbordered, edged, fringed

5. 5
   adjective

   Gotten around or evaded rather than dealt with directly.

   The carefully skirted issue resurfaced during the final vote.

   A neatly skirted obstacle still cost the convoy an hour.

   Oppositeaddressed, tackled

6. 6
   adjective

   Only just avoided; missed by a narrow margin.

   The narrowly skirted collision became the talk of the depot.

   Their barely skirted bankruptcy taught the owners lasting caution.

   Similaraverted, escaped

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