Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) to look around in search of something; occas as n. a search.

1864		‘Mark Twain’ Sketches New and Old vol. 2 (1981) 77: He goes through the camp-meetings and skirmishes for raw converts .
1869		‘Mark Twain’ Innocents Abroad 86: They take with them a quantity of food, and when the commissary department fails they ‘skirmish,’ as Jack terms it in his sinful, slangy way.
1877		Winfeild Telegram (KS) 25 Apr. 8/3: ‘I suppose I might skirmish around and find an old piece of buffalo-robe and bake it for dinner’.
1880		Chicago Trib. 9 May 10/1: Wallce [...] got a troope [sic] together to skirmish around the rural districts.
1900		Democrat & Chron. (Rochester, NY) 4 Feb. 19 Apr. : ‘You furnish the bread, and I’ll skirmish around after the water’.
1907		S.E. White Arizona Nights 74: We skirmished around and found a condemned army pack-saddle with aparejos, and a sawbuck saddle with kyacks.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Dec. 11/1: As a last resort the harassed father spoke to the local town clerk, who got the benevolent society to skirmish up a trained nurse.
1918		Ward Co. Indep. (Minot, ND) 20 June 6/3: It is his practice to skirmish around the camp late at night.