shirking
avoiding responsibility
TRANSLATION
shirk = sich vor etwas drücken, Leistung zurückhalten, vor etw. kneifen, sich einem Problem etc. nicht stellen, einem Problem ausweichen --- GOOGLE INDEX shirking: approximately 517,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Parents SHIRKING their financial responsibilities are costing our kids millions of pounds.
(Daily Mirror)
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Is SHIRKING just a smarter way of working?
(The Guardian)
(Daily Mirror)
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Is SHIRKING just a smarter way of working?
(The Guardian)
Did you
know?
shirk
verb
- avoid or neglect (a duty or responsibility)
(Oxford Dictionary)
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The word shirk may come from shark, used in the 1500s as another word for charlatan, a person who fools others. This may have its roots in the German word Schurke. Sailors also used the term refer to large and dangerous sharp-toothed, man-eating fish.
Later by the mid-1600s, shirk was used as a verb to refer to gaining something through dishonest means, even to earn one's entire income by cheating others. Think of the character Artful Dodger, the child pickpocket in the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Another theory is that the word may be related to the Arabic word shirk (širk). In Islam, this the sin of worshiping another God, in other words placing "partners" next to Allah.
By the mid-18th century shirking was attempting to avoid a certain person, perhaps because you owed them money. It later came to mean avoiding a task you need to do, and is most often combined with the words duty or responsibility.
Used as a verb, the similar word skirt also refers to going around or avoiding something narrowly, usually because the person is afraid of conflict (During the meeting, Alan skirted the issue of the company's budget problems).
On the other hand, the verb shrink simply means to get smaller.
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SYNONYMS
avoid, elude, dodge, duck, get around, evade, sidestep, skirt, steer clear of
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"They'd be shirking their duty if they didn't report the bad working conditions in their Chinese operation."
verb
- avoid or neglect (a duty or responsibility)
(Oxford Dictionary)
---
The word shirk may come from shark, used in the 1500s as another word for charlatan, a person who fools others. This may have its roots in the German word Schurke. Sailors also used the term refer to large and dangerous sharp-toothed, man-eating fish.
Later by the mid-1600s, shirk was used as a verb to refer to gaining something through dishonest means, even to earn one's entire income by cheating others. Think of the character Artful Dodger, the child pickpocket in the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Another theory is that the word may be related to the Arabic word shirk (širk). In Islam, this the sin of worshiping another God, in other words placing "partners" next to Allah.
By the mid-18th century shirking was attempting to avoid a certain person, perhaps because you owed them money. It later came to mean avoiding a task you need to do, and is most often combined with the words duty or responsibility.
Used as a verb, the similar word skirt also refers to going around or avoiding something narrowly, usually because the person is afraid of conflict (During the meeting, Alan skirted the issue of the company's budget problems).
On the other hand, the verb shrink simply means to get smaller.
---
SYNONYMS
avoid, elude, dodge, duck, get around, evade, sidestep, skirt, steer clear of
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"They'd be shirking their duty if they didn't report the bad working conditions in their Chinese operation."
