Link Centre Dictionary

whirl

UK/wɜːl/ US/ʍɜːl/ uncommon informal
verb (5) noun (4)

verb

1.

turn in a twisting or spinning motion

  • “The leaves swirled in the autumn wind”
Synonyms
2.

cause to spin

  • “spin a coin”
Synonyms
3.

flow in a circular current, of liquids

Synonyms
4.

revolve quickly and repeatedly around one''s own axis

  • “The dervishes whirl around and around without getting dizzy”
Synonyms
5.

fly around

  • “The clothes tumbled in the dryer”
  • “rising smoke whirled in the air”
Synonyms

noun

1.

confused movement

  • “he was caught up in a whirl of work”
  • “a commotion of people fought for the exits”
Synonyms
2.

the shape of something rotating rapidly

Synonyms
3.

a usually brief attempt

  • “he took a crack at it”
  • “I gave it a whirl”
Synonyms
4.

the act of rotating rapidly

  • “he gave the crank a spin”
  • “it broke off after much twisting”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English whirlen, contracted from earlier *whirvelen, *whervelen, possibly from Old English *hwyrflian, *hweorflian (attested in hwirflung, hwerflung (“change, vicissitude”)), frequentative form of Old English hweorfan (“to turn”), itself from Proto-West Germanic *hwerban, from Proto-Germanic *hwerbaną (“to turn”); or perhaps from Old Norse hvirfla (“to go round, spin”). Cognate with Dutch wervelen (“to whirl, swirl”), German wirbeln (“to whirl, swirl”), Danish hvirvle (“to whirl”), Swedish virvla (older spelling hvirfla), Albanian vorbull (“a whirl”). Related to whirr and wharve.

Phrases

  • fire whirl
  • give something a whirl
  • whirl bone

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.