How to Use shirk in a Sentence

shirk

verb
  • He never shirked from doing his duty.
  • He's too conscientious to shirk his duty.
  • They did their duty without shirking or complaining.
  • On the road, DMX went out of his way to shirk the aura of celebrity.
    Ben Dandridge-Lemco, Rolling Stone, 28 Dec. 2021
  • Netflix The Boyfriend, on the other hand, shirks these norms.
    Michael Cuby, Them, 19 July 2024
  • When the spring thaw comes, don’t shirk the sunshine in favor of your new chess habit.
    Janelle Randazza, USA TODAY, 2 Dec. 2020
  • Just don’t try to shirk your duties or find an easy way out!
    Tarot.com, Baltimore Sun, 18 Mar. 2024
  • While some guests may have shirked the dress code, the evening’s entertainment took the theme in earnest.
    Vogue, 21 May 2019
  • At the same time, Ardern does not plan to entirely shirk her duties while on leave.
    Natasha Bach, Fortune, 21 June 2018
  • The video was the latest sign that Mr. Lukashenko, who has ruled for 26 years, did not intend to shirk from confrontation with the West.
    New York Times, 24 May 2021
  • To do less or to dither rather than decide is to shirk our duty and betray the public’s trust.
    Gov. Butch Otter, idahostatesman, 8 Jan. 2018
  • Go beyond your two weeks of vacation; shatter the system; shirk the Man; do a new, freer kind of work!
    Nathan Heller, The New Yorker, 12 Sep. 2019
  • This Italian restaurant doesn’t shirk from the classics.
    Michael Candelaria, OrlandoSentinel.com, 21 June 2018
  • Moments before, during the introductions, the thing to do had been to shirk his eye contact and look at the things in the room that weren’t him.
    Susan Choi, The New Yorker, 31 Aug. 2020
  • Unlike, say, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, he shirks scripted talking points.
    Nash Jenkins, Time, 5 Apr. 2018
  • Rather than rise to the challenge of Cavani’s presence, Martial seemed to shirk away and retreat in to himself.
    Sam Pilger, Forbes, 29 June 2021
  • The past could never quite be shirked, and the future that would cauterize the insults of that past could never get quite close enough.
    Will Blythe, Esquire, 1 Apr. 2010
  • Over years, Congress made the choice to shirk its duty and cede power to the executive branch.
    Haley Victory Smith, Washington Examiner, 9 Sep. 2020
  • And the Moon slips away, unseen, three millimeters monthly and so on etcetera till its visage will shirk this scene.
    Christopher Cokinos, Scientific American, 1 Mar. 2020
  • Sofia isn’t afraid of work and is always taking on assignments that others would shirk at.
    Heide Janssen, Orange County Register, 17 Mar. 2024
  • Shuggie is an extreme version of how most of us have to shirk off our parents to become ourselves.
    Los Angeles Times, 7 Apr. 2021
  • But perhaps these demure little creatures have shirked the spotlight for far too long.
    Katherine J. Wu, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Apr. 2020
  • But with the latter, all claims to hard shirking prove disingenuous.
    Tony Fletcher, WSJ, 1 Sep. 2017
  • From the start of the ceremony, the speakers didn’t shirk references to what students faced during their time at U-M.
    David Jesse, Detroit Free Press, 7 May 2022
  • These slender, creative midfielders often shirk the physical side of the game, but that cannot be said for Gilmour.
    SI.com, 14 July 2019
  • The defendants have all tried to shirk liability from the event.
    Ethan Millman, Rolling Stone, 10 May 2022
  • Jesus doesn’t teach us to shirk our financial obligations, and the SBC has a lot of obligations.
    Dominic Pino, National Review, 3 June 2021
  • To ignore that—and to shirk all forms of compromise—will make this issue more partisan than ever.
    Caroline Kitchener, The Atlantic, 22 Sep. 2017
  • To our national shame, Labour, like the Tories before it, looks set to shirk the biggest fiscal challenge facing Britain today: fixing social care, which has been in a mess for decades.
    The Week, theweek, 22 Sep. 2024
  • Even the way Jennifer Lopez carried her bag is somewhat impractical for a shopping trip, shirking a shoulder strap in favor of holding the top handles.
    Emily Tannenbaum, Glamour, 18 Aug. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'shirk.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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