skirts

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of skirt.

   The dancers changed into long pleated skirts for the second act.

   Several skirts hung neatly on the rack near the window.

   Note

   Most often the garments themselves, but the plural can also count the loose edgings and petticoats the word names. It can carry the derogatory slang use for a woman too, so care is needed. The British colloquial sense of women collectively, in a sexual context, is uncountable: it stays skirt and does not become skirts. The same spelling also serves the verb meaning to edge or avoid.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of skirt.

   The new highway skirts the town rather than cutting through its center.

   Her latest essay skirts the central issue without ever addressing it directly.

   Note

   Every meaning behind this form takes a direct object: a road skirts the town, a hedge skirts a field, a speaker skirts a question. The literal edge-following comes first, and the figurative avoidance grows from it. Passing around the border of a place rather than through its center becomes passing around a problem rather than addressing it.

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