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shirk
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  • To shirk from avenging a string of insults was to lose your honor, your dignity, or even your friends.†   (source)
  • He learned about the census of Jews in the German forces during the war, and of the numerous German populist leaflets that were being distributed throughout Hamburg, which claimed that the Jews had been cowards, shirking their duties at the front, and carrying out shady deals while there.†   (source)
  • "His ear's ripped," he points out accusingly, like I've shirked my duty.†   (source)
  • MADAM HOOCH: Come on, now, I've no time for shirkers.†   (source)
  • A stalker determined to befriend Amy, and when Amy shirked her... "Do you have any information about Amy, Noelle?"†   (source)
  • Human troops shirking, I was sure—I'd never have allowed such a thing on any of my own shuttles.†   (source)
  • Such a shirking trick in a workman employed to keep the terraces clean should be a criminal offence.†   (source)
  • I felt like I was letting them down, shirking my duty.†   (source)
  • He's a great patriot, but he's rough and tough on men who shirk their duty.†   (source)
  • You've had a long day — sorry, I know that doesn't begin to cover it — but that doesn't mean that you can shirk your responsibilities.†   (source)
  • Candy didn't shirk her studies either.†   (source)
  • The next time, and God grant there isn't a next time, I will not shirk my duty to her.†   (source)
  • He had seen lone dwarves face an entire group of Kull without shirking.†   (source)
  • Not long after Fischer reached Kruse and began the troublesome descent to Base Camp, they encountered Boukreev at the top of the Icefall, ascending alone, and Fischer harshly reprimanded the guide for shirking his responsibilities.†   (source)
  • They all considered him to be a man who shirked his duties.†   (source)
  • I spotted that feller for a rogue and a shirk the minute I laid eyes on him.†   (source)
  • No shirking your duties.†   (source)
  • As the Great Matriarch of Rowan, however, she's the one you'll have to answer to if she hears you're shirking your tasks.†   (source)
  • He could not shirk his family obligations, and now this began to work in my favor.†   (source)
  • There will be shirkers.†   (source)
  • And yet he did not strike me for shirking my chores, but only looked down at the letters I had attempted, rubbed a grimy fist across his stubbled chin, and walked on.†   (source)
  • These people constitute a national guard, a ready militia of language watchdogs who believe that English teachers are shirking their duty and that newspapers don't set their language standards nearly high enough.†   (source)
  • But I shirked that responsibility; I became too snarled in the incompatible notions that buzzed within my brain.†   (source)
  • Deo went on reciting, not realizing he was murmuring aloud: "He felt the weight of his ignorance, — not simply of letters, but of life, of business, of the humanities; the accumulated sloth and shirking and awkwardness of decades and centuries shackled his hands and feet."†   (source)
  • My son never shirked in his studies, buoyed by the knowledge that the night of his wedding and the day his name appeared on the emperor's golden list would be the most glorious of his life.†   (source)
  • PRAISE-SINGER The gourd you bear is not for shirking.†   (source)
  • Incredibly, Parker was not held accountable for shirking his duties.†   (source)
  • They "played off" (shirked) or played sick when battle impended.†   (source)
  • She protested that she had done nothing wrong in Palmyra, that she had only wanted to see the destroyed temples of shirk with her own eyes, but again her captors were silent.†   (source)
  • BABY IGOR'S SONG Gainst the Hun and the Turk, never once do we shirk.†   (source)
  • Newspapers shirk notoriously their editorial responsibilities and print what they think their readers want.†   (source)
  • Now no more shirking; we must make a start.†   (source)
  • I'm not shirking, I'm too young to work, my nanny won't let me.†   (source)
  • She began to understand that she had a moral obligation to fire the Pole and that she was shirking it because she found it hard to do.†   (source)
  • Since the exterior security committee had kept no records— indeed, had had no way to— it was impossible to find out who was right and who was shirking.†   (source)
  • she would not shirk the duty, laid on her by the Lord, of doing everything within her power to bring him to the throne of grace.†   (source)
  • He did his work in the same slow obstinate way as he had done it in Jones's time, never shirking and never volunteering for extra work either.   (source)
    shirking = not doing a duty
  • Nobody shirked — or almost nobody.   (source)
    shirked = didn't do their work
  • He came between him and the shirks he should have punished.   (source)
    shirks = those who avoid duty
  • You've shirked your responsibility all along, from the very beginning.†   (source)
    shirked = avoided
  • I'd say you shirked your responsibility.†   (source)
  • We cannot shirk it for the sake of mere pain.†   (source)
  • I felt she was in some way betraying me — that she was shirking her duties, that she'd abdicated.†   (source)
  • She could have her magicians cast spells to ensure that no one shirks their duty.†   (source)
  • Just because you find your task distasteful is no reason to shirk it.†   (source)
  • They drug around listlessly, not actually shirking their work but taking a long time to do it.†   (source)
  • "Shirk," he said with a shrug, using the Arabic word for polytheism.†   (source)
  • Dawnglows and evenglows congeal on fences,
    Dawdling and shirking at their tasks.†   (source)
  • The proposal was never completed, I assume because Nick realized he wasn't going to ever understand his once-distant father; and because Nick was shirking all "head of the family" duties; and because I wasn't expressing any anger about my new life.†   (source)
  • You are only as fast and as strong as a human may be, and yet you did not shirk from attacking the Ra'zac in their lair and freeing me from their dungeon.†   (source)
  • But this is one oath he cannot shirk.†   (source)
  • Jonathan Cooper was big lad like his late father and made short work of it, while his little brother Edward ran about with Jamie, finding ways to shirk the small chores we laid on them.†   (source)
  • "A 'beat," another Union soldier explained to his brother, "is one who plays sick, shirks duty ...and is always missing in a fight.†   (source)
  • I won't tolerate a shirker.†   (source)
  • The soldiers tired more slowly than ordinary men, and they never shirked from an attack, nor did they slacken in their efforts even when suffering from the most horrific injuries.†   (source)
  • He glides through life with that charming-Nicky grin, his beloved-child entitlement, his fibs and shirkings, his shortcomings and selfishness, and no one calls him on anything.†   (source)
  • It was perhaps not more dangerous than shirking an evening at the center.†   (source)
  • Byron believed that there was not even enough left of him to do a good, shrewd job of shirking.†   (source)
  • Miss Brinklow would never shirk a conclusion, even a wrong one.†   (source)
  • Ten long hours, afraid to pee too often because the foreman might think I was shirking.†   (source)
  • It's pretty beastly, but it's no use shirking facts.†   (source)
  • I always look cheerful and I never shirk anything.†   (source)
  • In both cases the real problem had been shirked; they had closed their ears to God's voice.†   (source)
  • Why do I shirk the task, not so very hard to a professional—have I not conveyed Roger from one end of life to the other ?†   (source)
  • You can shirk it by simply throwing your mind open and letting the ready-made phrases come crowding in.†   (source)
  • And whenever she found Carreen on her knees when she should have been taking an afternoon nap or doing the mending, she felt that Carreen was shirking her share of the burdens.†   (source)
  • Shirking the point does them no good.†   (source)
  • I have shirked the duty of coming to a conclusion upon these two questions—women and fiction remain, so far as I am concerned, unsolved problems.†   (source)
  • They developed a tendency to shirk every movement that didn't seem absolutely necessary or called for efforts that seemed too great to be worth while.†   (source)
  • I shirked as many of the weekday church services as possible, giving as my excuse that I had to study; of course, nobody believed me, but my lies were accepted because nobody wanted to risk a row.†   (source)
  • To desire to shirk, even, since a man must be better than common to do a good job of malingering, the same as a good job at anything else: of stealing and murdering even.†   (source)
  • His soul writhed with boredom, but for once he had had no impulse to shirk his evening at the center.†   (source)
  • He was not shirking a fight, but to be cornered like a trapped coyote was another matter.†   (source)
  • There isn't a kinder soul in Avonlea and she never shirks her share of work.†   (source)
  • And on both these days I had the restless feeling of one who shirks an inevitable duty.†   (source)
  • She shirked consideration of his sacrifice to his country.†   (source)
  • The skipper was ordering, "Get under and try to lift"; and the others naturally shirked.†   (source)
  • She found herself shirking daily attention to the clothes she had brought West.†   (source)
  • Responsibility is a very awful thing, and I've no use for the man who shirks it.†   (source)
  • "Search him, some of you shirking lubbers, and the rest of you aloft and get the chest," he cried.†   (source)
  • Joe had shirked saying good-by to him and Fay.†   (source)
  • Yes: he shirks all his responsibilities, and leaves his wife to grapple with them.†   (source)
  • You have always some excuse or another for shirking work.†   (source)
  • It is not that I want to shirk my responsibilities; it is that I like being happy.†   (source)
  • I was right on him before I could shirk.†   (source)
  • In fact, I had to simply shirk argument and do the diplomatic instead.†   (source)
  • The words choked Philip, but he was determined not to shirk the truth.†   (source)
  • And this one I can't shirk or twist around.†   (source)
  • The lesson of the West had been to endure, not to shirk—to face an issue, not to hide.†   (source)
  • But I've got to get over this thing, and I mustn't shirk any of it or ...I won't shirk any of it.†   (source)
  • In this Carley lost something of a shirking fear that her loss and grief were patent to all eyes.†   (source)
  • Just as he was going into the nursery he remembered what it was he had shirked facing.†   (source)
  • Tull could not fight in the open Venters had said, Lassiter had said, that her Elder shirked fight and worked in the dark.†   (source)
  • That evening at supper Fraulein Cacilie, redder than usual, with a look of obstinacy on her face, took her place punctually; but Herr Sung did not appear, and for a while Philip thought he was going to shirk the ordeal.†   (source)
  • He felt the weight of his ignorance,—not simply of letters, but of life, of business, of the humanities; the accumulated sloth and shirking and awkwardness of decades and centuries shackled his hands and feet.†   (source)
  • No, I won't have you shirking.†   (source)
  • He says his French just like Mossoo
    A beastly stuck-up thing to do
    He won't keep cave, shirks his turn
    And says he came to school to learn!†   (source)
  • Chapter 17 At seven o'clock the next morning Jurgis was let out to get water to wash his cell—a duty which he performed faithfully, but which most of the prisoners were accustomed to shirk, until their cells became so filthy that the guards interposed.†   (source)
  • Strange it was to see that Gulden, who Joan thought might be a shirker, did twice the work of any man, especially the heavy work.†   (source)
  • I don't know what else to tell yeh, Henry, excepting that yeh must never do no shirking, child, on my account.†   (source)
  • It should be clear that we are speaking about a husband's, a father's pity, about the act of birth, which Elly's travails indeed so manifestly, so unmistakably resembled chat even someone unfamiliar with birth would have had to have recognized it—someone like our young Hans Castorp, who, having never shirked life, now learned about that act of organic mysticism in this form.†   (source)
  • If you good people prefer preaching and shirking to buying my weapons and fighting the rascals, don't blame me.†   (source)
  • We have seen with what irritation he shirked those little duties which no longer contained any amusement of satisfaction for him, and the open snarls with which, more recently, he resented her irritating goads.†   (source)
  • There are those who feel it quite all right if they can shirk the normal responsibilities in such cases as to perform these operations, but it's very dangerous, Mrs. Howard, very dangerous legally and ethically as well as medically very wrong.†   (source)
  • When Carlotta heard of the astounding reception bestowed upon her understudy, she was at once cured of an incipient attack of bronchitis and a bad fit of sulking against the management and lost the slightest inclination to shirk her duties.†   (source)
  • But next morning I perceived clearly enough that my curiosity regarding the Palace of Green Porcelain was a piece of self-deception, to enable me to shirk, by another day, an experience I dreaded.†   (source)
  • By sacrificing good taste, this worship achieved what Christianity has shirked: the inclusion of merriment.†   (source)
  • We men, if we do not shirk our own humanity, are aware of a certain moment in life when we feel this same unbearable pity—to which, absurd as it seems, no one responds, presumably because it is quite out of place—when we wrestle with a suppressed, outraged "Enough!" although we know it is not yet enough, cannot, dare not, be enough, and must go on and end one way or the other.†   (source)
  • I shirk not.†   (source)
  • And I never wanted to shirk my share in whatever evil must be endured, whether it be sin or suffering.†   (source)
  • You can face it or shirk it—and I have come across a man or two who could wink at their familiar shades.†   (source)
  • Now then, you children, get along with you and wash your hands all of you, and don't shirk it, because I mean to look at them before you have a scrap of dinner, so there.'†   (source)
  • However Jim might meet the situation planned for murdering Creede, she knew he would not shirk facing Gulden with deadly intent.†   (source)
  • In failing thus to state plainly and unequivocally the legitimate demands of their people, even at the cost of opposing an honored leader, the thinking classes of American Negroes would shirk a heavy responsibility,—a responsibility to themselves, a responsibility to the struggling masses, a responsibility to the darker races of men whose future depends so largely on this American experiment, but especially a responsibility to this nation,—this common Fatherland.†   (source)
  • The women of our set are idle, luxurious, selfish, pleasure-craving, lazy, useless, work-and-children shirking, absolutely no good.†   (source)
  • Sick of life—to tell you the truth; but what would have been the good to shirk it—in—in—that way?†   (source)
  • Obviously Jim was not of the winking sort; but what I could never make up my mind about was whether his line of conduct amounted to shirking his ghost or to facing him out.†   (source)
  • They were exasperated with him for being a half-hearted shirker: he focussed on them his hatred of the whole thing; he would have liked to take a signal revenge for the abhorrent opportunity they had put in his way.†   (source)
  • Instead of serving your masters faithfully, which is pleasing in the sight of your heavenly Master, you are idle, and shirk your work.†   (source)
  • "Yes, looking at the sky, I thought that the dome that I see is not a deception, and then I thought something, I shirked facing something," he mused.†   (source)
  • You may call a lake-fish that will weigh twenty or thirty pounds a serious matter, but to a man who has hauled in a shovel-nosed shirk, d'ye see, it's but a poor kind of fishing after all.†   (source)
  • A pause — in which I began to steady the palsy of my nerves, and to feel that the Rubicon was passed; and that the trial, no longer to be shirked, must be firmly sustained.†   (source)
  • Let him live outside his income, or shirk the resolute honest work that brings wages, and he will presently find himself dreaming of a possible benefactor, a possible simpleton who may be cajoled into using his interest, a possible state of mind in some possible person not yet forthcoming.†   (source)
  • She wrote that his health was satisfactory; he did his work without shirking or seeking to do more; he was almost indifferent about food, but except on Sundays and holidays the food was so bad that at last he had been glad to accept some money from her, Sonia, to have his own tea every day.†   (source)
  • A matter of such great importance—the welfare of the town at stake—it is no time to shirk trouble, (is just going, but stops and comes back.)†   (source)
  • The minute after a step traversed the hall; the open house was too tempting for Heathcliff to resist walking in: most likely he supposed that I was inclined to shirk my promise, and so resolved to trust to his own audacity.†   (source)
  • Then the sleepless Boots went shirking round from door to door, gathering up at each the Bluchers, Wellingtons, Oxonians, which stood outside.†   (source)
  • It is probably some unpleasantness and some purple of this sort which the first man is desirous of shirking.†   (source)
  • Shirking won't do for me.†   (source)
  • The student who secures his coveted leisure and retirement by systematically shirking any labor necessary to man obtains but an ignoble and unprofitable leisure, defrauding himself of the experience which alone can make leisure fruitful.†   (source)
  • The hot weather made him indolent, and he had shirked his studies, tried Mr. Brooke's patience to the utmost, displeased his grandfather by practicing half the afternoon, frightened the maidservants half out of their wits by mischievously hinting that one of his dogs was going mad, and, after high words with the stableman about some fancied neglect of his horse, he had flung himself into his hammock to fume over the stupidity of the world in general, till the peace of the lovely day quieted him in spite of himself.†   (source)
  • Now, if you take into account that all this was to be worked out by a set of lazy, twaddling, shiftless laborers, who had grown up, all their lives, in the absence of every possible motive to learn how to do anything but 'shirk,' as you Vermonters say, and you'll see that there might naturally be, on his plantation, a great many things that looked horrible and distressing to a sensitive child, like me.†   (source)
  • She shirked it with the suddenness of the weak Apostle at the accusation, "Thy speech bewrayeth thee!"†   (source)
  • He is a man to be shirked, put off, brow-beaten, sneered at, handed over by this highly-connected young or old gentleman, to that highly-connected young or old gentleman, and dodged back again; he is a man with no rights in his own time, or his own property; a mere outlaw, whom it is justifiable to get rid of anyhow; a man to be worn out by all possible means.'†   (source)
  • The same objection applies to a workhouse, supposing I had the patience to be evaded and shirked, and handed about from post to pillar in trying to get him into one, which is a system that I don't take kindly to.†   (source)
  • I'd no right to expect anything but evil could come of that marriage—and when I shirked doing a father's part too.†   (source)
  • Now, that's shirking.†   (source)
  • Shirking and sharking in all their many varieties have been sown broadcast by the ill-fated cause; and even those who have contemplated its history from the outermost circle of such evil have been insensibly tempted into a loose way of letting bad things alone to take their own bad course, and a loose belief that if the world go wrong it was in some off-hand manner never meant to go right.†   (source)
  • Just as before, they save themselves, and shirk the fight.†   (source)
  • It is not true, as Akhilleus charges, that Agamemnon shirks battle; he can fight well, but is subject to repeated moods of doubt and vacillation.†   (source)
  • Writing and accounts she was taught by her father; French by her mother: her proficiency in either was not remarkable, and she shirked her lessons in both whenever she could.†   (source)
  • By fighting you can save our ships, but if you shirk the battle, then we face defeat this day at the Trojans'hands.†   (source)
  • Or can you be abandoning Ilion in fear, after he perished, that great one who never shirked a battle, your own princely son?†   (source)
  • You have rightly left the making of that charge to life's shirkers.†   (source)
  • I was no fool
    and never shirked a fight.†   (source)
  • And who shirk their duties?†   (source)
  • "I won't put up with a man who shirks his work,
    not if he takes his ration from my stores,
    even if he's miles away from home."†   (source)
  • The word /slacker/, recently come into good usage in the United States as a designation for an unsuccessful shirker of conscription, is a substantive derived from the English verb /to slack/, which was born as university slang and remains so to this day.†   (source)
  • I dare not shirk any part of myself,
    Not any part of America good or bad,
    Not to build for that which builds for mankind,
    Not to balance ranks, complexions, creeds, and the sexes,
    Not to justify science nor the march of equality,
    Nor to feed the arrogant blood of the brawn belov'd of time.†   (source)
  • The gallant combatant came well primed by his master the duke as to how he was to bear himself against the valiant Don Quixote of La Mancha; being warned that he must on no account slay him, but strive to shirk the first encounter so as to avoid the risk of killing him, as he was sure to do if he met him full tilt.†   (source)
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