shire town (shirtoun)

a shire; a county town. shire-wickt (shēr'wik), п. Stubbs, Const. Hist., § 50. [See sheriff'1 .] A The chief town of A shire; a county. Holland. shirk (shèrk), v. [More prop. sherk; appar. the same as shark (cf. clerk and clark, ME. derk and E. dark1 ): see shark2.] I. in trans. 11. To practise mean or artful tricks; live by one's wits; shark. He [Archbishop Laud) might have spent his time much better.. than thus sherking and raking in the tobacco shops. State Trials (1640), H. Grim stone. 2. To avoid unfairly or meanly the performance of some labor or duty. One of the cities shirked from the league. Byron, To Murray, Sept. 7, 1820. There was little idling and no shirking in his school. H. B. Stowe , Oldtown, p. 425. To shirk off, to sneak away. [Colloq.] II. trans. 1t. To procure by mean tricks; shark. Imp . Dict .-2. To avoid or get off from unfairly or meanly; slink away from: as, to shirk responsibility. [Colloq.] They would roar out instances of his. encounter with a lout half his own size. shirking some T. Hughes, Tom Brown at Rugby, i. 8.