quirk
verb/kwɜːk/
/kwɜːrk/
[transitive, intransitive] (especially North American English)Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they quirk | /kwɜːk/ /kwɜːrk/ |
| he / she / it quirks | /kwɜːks/ /kwɜːrks/ |
| past simple quirked | /kwɜːkt/ /kwɜːrkt/ |
| past participle quirked | /kwɜːkt/ /kwɜːrkt/ |
| -ing form quirking | /ˈkwɜːkɪŋ/ /ˈkwɜːrkɪŋ/ |
- quirk (something) to twist your mouth or eyebrows suddenly; (of your mouth or eyebrows) to move in this way
- David quirked an eyebrow and smirked slightly.
- Her lips quirked suddenly.
Word Originearly 16th cent. (as a verb): of unknown origin. The early sense of the noun was ‘subtle verbal twist, quibble’, later ‘unexpected twist’.Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
Check pronunciation:
quirk