Whirl
[wɜːl] or [wɝrl]
Definition
(noun.) confused movement; 'he was caught up in a whirl of work'; 'a commotion of people fought for the exits'.
(noun.) the shape of something rotating rapidly.
(verb.) fly around; 'The clothes tumbled in the dryer'; 'rising smoke whirled in the air'.
(verb.) cause to spin; 'spin a coin'.
Checked by Amy--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To turn round rapidly; to cause to rotate with velocity; to make to revolve.
(v. t.) To remove or carry quickly with, or as with, a revolving motion; to snatch; to harry.
(v. i.) To be turned round rapidly; to move round with velocity; to revolve or rotate with great speed; to gyrate.
(v. i.) To move hastily or swiftly.
(v. t.) A turning with rapidity or velocity; rapid rotation or circumvolution; quick gyration; rapid or confusing motion; as, the whirl of a top; the whirl of a wheel.
(v. t.) Anything that moves with a whirling motion.
(v. t.) A revolving hook used in twisting, as the hooked spindle of a rope machine, to which the threads to be twisted are attached.
(v. t.) A whorl. See Whorl.
Checked by Dora
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. n. Twirl, revolve, rotate, spin.
v. a. Twirl, spin, wheel, turn round.
n. Gyration, rotation.
Typist: Stanley
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Twirl, spin_round, gyrate,[See LASH]
Edited by Cary
Definition
n. a turning with rapidity: anything that turns with velocity.—v.i. to revolve rapidly.—v.t. to turn round rapidly: to carry away rapidly as on wheels.—ns. Whirl′-about′ anything that turns round rapidly; Whirl′-bat (obs.) the ancient cestus; Whirl′-blast a whirling blast of wind; Whirl′-bone the knee-cap; Whirl′er; Whirl′igig a child's toy which is spun or whirled rapidly round: a merry-go-round: anything that revolves rapidly: the water-beetle (Gyrinus): an ancient instrument of punishment consisting of a pivoted wooden cage in which the prisoner was spun round; Whirl′ing; Whirl′ing-der′vish one of an order of Mohammedan devotees who dance or spin round—the Mevlevis or dancing dervishes founded in 1273; Whirl′ing-tā′ble -machine′ a machine exhibiting the effects of centripetal and centrifugal forces: an instrument used by potters; Whirl′pool a circular current in a river or sea produced by opposing tides winds or currents: an eddy; Whirl′wind a violent aerial current with a whirling rotary or spiral motion and wild circling rush.
Edited by Greg
Examples
- After a momentary whirl in the outer court-yard, the prison-door opened, and shut upon them. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- Her mother came into the room before this whirl of thoughts was adjusted into anything like order. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- The air, entering, rises within, and carries up dust, leaves, and even heavier bodies that happen in its way, as the eddy or whirl passes over land. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- GLADIATORIAL After the fiasco of the proposal, Birkin had hurried blindly away from Beldover, in a whirl of fury. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- It was filled with so many new and wonderful things that his brain was in a whirl as he attempted to digest them all. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- I suppose the first mischief was done by the foreside of the whirl, the latter by the hinderside, their motion being contrary. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- He smiled at the whirl of metaphor with which he was trying to build up a defence against the influences of the last hour. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- There was hair upon the end, which blazed and shrunk into a light cinder, and, caught by the air, whirled up the chimney. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- Stranger still, he whirled the girdle twice around his head, then released one end so that the leather strip flew out and the stone shot straight at a bird in the water. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- The grating wind sawed rather than blew; and as it sawed, the sawdust whirled about the sawpit. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Rebecca did not rise from her attitude of misery until the door slammed upon him and his carriage whirled away. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- I felt the steel tear into my chest, all went black before me, my head whirled in dizziness, and I felt my knees giving beneath me. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- Once within the circle he whirled her round and round in a dance. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Haley whipped up the horse, and, with a steady, mournful look, fixed to the last on the old place, Tom was whirled away. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- The sun is a dizzying scarlet blaze, the sky a violet vortex whirling over me. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Archer stammered, his brain whirling with the shock of the announcement. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- Face to face with the Englishman, however, he did not shirk the combat, but, whirling his sword with a fierce cry, dashed boldly at his enemy. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- Though he is stagnant in his cell, his connections without are whirling in the very vortex of life. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- She flung it into the fire, with a force that brought some of the glowing coals whirling out into the room. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- It is as if the storm-clouds within are moving like a whirling cyclone. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- His chief apparatus was a whirling table, sixty feet in diameter, and with an outside speed of seventy miles an hour. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- The instrument used in spinning was a large wheel, turned by hand, and setting in motion a set of whirls or revolving spindles, which twisted the hemp by their motion. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- A few, however, when we turn a telescope upon them, are seen to be whirls and clouds of shining vapour which we call nebul?. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- My head whirls, said he. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
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