skirt

A piece of clothing that hangs from the waist and covers some or all of the legs.

• She wore a red skirt.
• This skirt has two pockets.
• Do you prefer skirts or trousers?

Common phrases: long skirt, short skirt, wear a skirt

To avoid dealing with a subject or problem directly.

• He tried to skirt the issue.
• She skirted my question about the missing money.
• We cannot keep skirting around this problem.

How to use it: skirt around something (The report skirts around the problem of cost.)

Similar words: avoid, evade

Opposites: confront

Common phrases: skirt the issue, skirt a question, skirt around something

To travel along the edge of something instead of going through its middle.

• The walkers skirted the lake.
• We skirt the city to avoid heavy traffic.
• Our route skirted a thick forest.

How to use it: skirt around something (We skirted around the flooded village.)

Similar words: go around, bypass

Common phrases: skirt a mountain, skirt the city, skirt around something

To lie along the edge of a place or form its outer border.

• Trees skirt the field.
• A narrow road skirts the lake.
• Low hills skirted the wide plain.

Similar words: border, fringe

Common phrases: skirt a field, skirt a village, skirt the coast