skirling

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈskɜːlɪŋ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈskɝlɪŋ/

Verb

skirling

1. present participle and gerund of skirl
   • 1818 July 25, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC:

     "And at ony rate , if he suld hear her skirling her auld ends oʻsangs , he's no to ken for that that there's ony body wi' her."

Noun

skirling (plural skirlings)

1. (UK, dialect) A small trout or salmon.
2. (Northern England and Scotland) A shrill cry or sound; a crying shrilly; a skirl.
   • 1885, Juliana Horatia Ewing, The Story of a Short Life:

     When the skirling of the pipes cleft the air his cold eyes softened.

References

• “skirling”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• "skirling" in On-line Medical Dictionary, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1997–2005.