A skirl is the shrill wailing sound of bagpipes. The skirl of the pipes, a distant skirl, skirling in the wind.
It is a Scots and northern English word and it is used of almost nothing else, so the pipes and the word travel together. It works as a verb too. The word imitates the sound and probably came from Old Norse.
1nounskirlThe shrill wailing sound of bagpipes.
“The skirl of the bagpipes echoed across the glen.”
skirl is a sound.
A Scots and northern word, probably from Old Norse, imitating the sound.
Originally from Scots - and Northern English dialects (as a verb), probably of Old Norse - origin; ultimately imitative.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA