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I was searching on the meaning of skirt in Longman dictionary and I found the definition which is: "a piece of outer clothing worn by women and girls", Why did not he say: "a piece of outer clothing is worn by women and girls", Why did they not use an auxiliary verb?

Martin W
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Mohammad Alshareef
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    It is sometimes called a whiz deletion, "A phenomenon where the relative pronoun and the verb "to be" are removed from certain relative clauses." In this case which is was removed. – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ Jul 28 '19 at 16:08
  • It is done simply to save space. – Mick Jul 28 '19 at 16:12
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    You only use auxiliary verbs in verb phrases. Definitions of nouns are noun phrases. This is not passive voice. Worn is a reduced participle from a relative clause, which would contain a relative pronoun as well as an auxiliary verb. So the answer is that an auxiliary verb would be ungrammatical without a relative pronoun as well. Whiz-deletion removes both of them at the same time, for the same purpose. – John Lawler Jul 28 '19 at 17:32

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"a piece of outer clothing worn by women and girls" is not a complete sentence. In a sentence it would be:

A skirt is a piece of outer clothing worn by women and girls

Past participles can be used together with an auxiliary verb to form a sentence or without one and then they act as adjectives.

It's the same as saying:

a piece of outer clothing that is worn by women and girls

Martin W
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