WHIRL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Whirl

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/wərl/ /hwərl/ Listen

noun

Whirl n.

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. "In no breathless whirl." "The rapid... whirl of things here below interrupt not the inviolable rest and calmness of the noble beings above."

Anything that moves with a whirling motion. "He saw Falmouth under gray, iron skies, and whirls of March dust."

A revolving hook used in twisting, as the hooked spindle of a rope machine, to which the threads to be twisted are attached.

(Bot. & Zool.) A whorl. See Whorl.

verb

Whirl v. t. (past & past part. whirled; pres. part. whirling)

To turn round rapidly; to cause to rotate with velocity; to make to revolve. "He whirls his sword around without delay."

To remove or carry quickly with, or as with, a revolving motion; to snatch; to harry. "See, see the chariot, and those rushing wheels, That whirled the prophet up at Chebar flood." "The passionate heart of the poet is whirl'd into folly."

Whirl v. i.

To be turned round rapidly; to move round with velocity; to revolve or rotate with great speed; to gyrate. "The whirling year vainly my dizzy eyes pursue." "The wooden engine flies and whirls about."

To move hastily or swiftly. "But whirled away to shun his hateful sight."

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Etymology of 'Whirl'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Whirl" Quotes from Famous Books

... about; wondered too—for she knelt with her back to the great fireplace—if the shepherd had laid by his pipe and was kneeling among the ashes. Something in the Minister's voice had set her brain in a whirl, and ...

— True Tilda • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... night. In reality it was less than two hours till daybreak, but they were slow-footed ones to me. Then dawn flung itself impetuously across the hills, and the naked rim of the canyon took form in a shifting whirl of smoke. Down in the depths gloom and shadows vanished together, and Piegan Smith and I peered over the top of our rock and saw the outlaw camp—men and horses dim figures in the growing light. We scanned the opposite side for sight of MacRae, but saw nothing ...

— Raw Gold - A Novel • Bertrand W. Sinclair

... manufacture a decent thick surface of conventionality, and its self-conscious respectable wing could no more escape its spirit than its fogs and winds. But evil excitement was tempered to irresponsible gaiety, a constant whirl of innocent pleasures. When the spirit passed the portals untempered, and drove women too highly-strung, too unhappy, or too easily bored, to the divorce courts, to drink, or to reckless adventure, they were summarily ...

— Sleeping Fires • Gertrude Atherton

... used to wonder sometimes at her boundless energy. She would whirl through the housework, help prepare the meals, do a morning's ironing, run the sewing machine all afternoon, and then often, after supper, challenge Norman to some such thing as a bonfire race, to see which could rake up the greatest pile of autumn ...

— Mary Ware's Promised Land • Annie Fellows Johnston

... unlike the vigorous young person of a later epoch. She was distinctly loud in her manners and free and easy in her conversation.... At any rate, she was a healthier type than the pleasure-loving matron of the Second Empire, whose life was one whirl of unwholesome excitement. The vulgarity of thought and conduct, the destruction of all standards of dignity, which characterized the regime of Louis Napoleon's stock-jobbing adventurers, were reflected in the dress of the women. Never was ...

— Paris from the Earliest Period to the Present Day; Volume 1 • William Walton

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