WHIRLIGIG • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Whirligig

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noun

Whirligig n.

A child's toy, spun or whirled around like a wheel upon an axis, or like a top.

Anything which whirls around, or in which persons or things are whirled about, as a frame with seats or wooden horses. "With a whirligig of jubilant mosquitoes spinning about each head."

A mediaeval instrument for punishing petty offenders, being a kind of wooden cage turning on a pivot, in which the offender was whirled round with great velocity.

(Zool.) Any one of numerous species of beetles belonging to Gyrinus and allied genera. The body is firm, oval or boatlike in form, and usually dark colored with a bronzelike luster. These beetles live mostly on the surface of water, and move about with great celerity in a gyrating, or circular, manner, but they are also able to dive and swim rapidly. The larva is aquatic. Called also weaver, whirlwig, and whirlwig beetle.

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Etymology of 'Whirligig'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Whirligig" Quotes from Famous Books

... the same old trumpeting and tootling, tom-tomming, and roaring of showmen's voices. The same old roundabouts, only now they were driven by steam, and short, quick whistles announced that the whirligig caravan was travelling round the world. The fat woman, the strong man, the smashers tapping the "claret," the "Pelican of the Wilderness," that mystic and melancholy bird, the rifle galleries, the popping for nuts—behold these are they our ...

— Amaryllis at the Fair • Richard Jefferies

... of dress and of manners, the Puritan triumph has been complete. Even their worst enemies have come over to their side, and the 'whirligig of time has brought ...

— Plays and Puritans - from "Plays and Puritans and Other Historical Essays" • Charles Kingsley

... I'll pay you, Pat." As he spoke, Tom slowly picked himself up, and steadying himself by Polly's shoulder, issued his commands, and the procession fell into line. First, the big dog, barking at intervals; then the good-natured Irishman, trundling "that divil of a whirligig," as he disrespectfully called the idolized velocipede; then the wounded hero, supported by the faithful Polly; and Maud brought up the rear in ...

— Happy Days for Boys and Girls • Various

... see. It had been, indeed, an afternoon of snubs, such as she was hardly accustomed to receiving; and she seemed to have lost something of that wholesome defensive power she had possessed last year, the power of being righteously indignant. Time's whirligig had brought her to this,—that she had all but offered her friendship to Jack Dalhousie's friend, and he had more than repulsed her. She did feel indignant, a little; but, deeper than that, she felt wounded, she hardly knew why. After that moment of barrier-less intimacy in the drawing-room, ...

— V. V.'s Eyes • Henry Sydnor Harrison

... matter of dress and of manners, the Puritan triumph has been complete. Even their worst enemies have come over to their side, and the 'whirligig of time has ...

— Plays and Puritans - from "Plays and Puritans and Other Historical Essays" • Charles Kingsley

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