verb / noun
skirt
The outer boundary or surrounding strip.
The trail skirts the lake before climbing into the hills.
Etymology
The garment-word developed a sense for its lower edge. That peripheral image broadened to the border or outskirts of an area.
More examples
- A narrow skirt of gravel surrounds the storage shed.
- We skirted the field to avoid walking through the crops.
- The hikers are skirting the marsh on their way home.
Forms
skirt · skirts · skirted · skirting
Similar words
- border
- Emphasizes a boundary or edging rather than movement around it.
- bypass
- Means going around something without necessarily following its edge.