whirl
/wəːl
/verb
1Move or cause to move rapidly round and round: [no object]: leaves whirled in eddies of wind [with object]: I whirled her round the dance hall (as adjective whirling) a vigorous whirling jig...
- The wind whistled through the trees, making the leaves whirl round Tanon's head.
- Will I soon be going to Tea Dances at the village hall, whirling Mrs Skidmore round in a slow waltz in between the cups of weak Typhoo and the Garibaldi biscuits?
- She kicked off her sandals and we started dancing; me whirling her round and round while her bare feet flew frivolously over the grass.
Synonyms
rotate, turn, turn round, go round, revolve, circle, wheel, orbit, pivot, swivel, gyrate, spin, roll, twirl, pirouette;
Scottish birl
1.1Move or cause to move rapidly: [no object, with adverbial of direction]: Sybil stood waving as they whirled past figurative a kaleidoscope of images whirled through her brain...
- He slammed the brakes as the world whirled around and past him.
- Whole afternoons must whirl past in a daze at Highgrove with hundreds of people rushing about.
- The world whirled past me in a blur, and I didn't stop for anything.
Synonyms
hurry, speed, race, run, sprint, dash, bolt, dart, rush, hasten, hurtle, career, streak, shoot, whizz, zoom, go like lightning, go hell for leather, spank along, bowl along, rattle along, whoosh, buzz, swoop, flash, blast, charge, stampede, gallop, sweep, hare, fly, wing, scurry, scud, scutter, scramble
informal belt, pelt, tear, hotfoot it, leg it, zap, zip, whip, scoot, go like a bat out of hell
British informal bomb, bucket, shift, go like the clappers
Scottish informal wheech
North American informal clip, boogie, hightail, barrel
North American vulgar slang drag/tear/haul ass
literary fleet
archaic post, hie
1.2 [no object] (Of the head, mind, or senses) seem to spin round: Kate made her way back to the office, her mind whirling...
- It seemed as though her body was dissolving, and as the potency rose, that her mind was whirling, spinning free of her.
- I stared out the window, my mind spinning and whirling.
- He was once again stoic and calculating, the face was blank, but she could sense that behind it his mind was whirling.
Synonyms
spin, reel, go round, be in a whirl, swim, be/feel giddy, be/feel dizzy
noun
1 [in singular] A rapid movement round and round.The tempestuous whirl of circum-Antarctic waters is also responsible for their being among the most fertile in the world....
- The rainbows of colour scattered around the room coupled with the whirl of the spinning wheels when they are put into motion is an amazing combination and makes for a very comfortable atmosphere.
- The whirl of snow rises up next to me becoming bigger than life, completely engulfs me and quickly passes over.
Synonyms
swirl, flurry, eddy
1.1Frantic activity of a specified kind: the event was all part of the mad social whirl...
- My trip, which included Madeira and a whistle-stop tour of the Canary Islands, was filled with a controlled whirl of almost non-stop activities and fun.
- But the breathless whirl of activity has an odd calm at its centre.
- In a whirl of activity, the team boarded the aircraft with well over 500 pounds of precious lifesaving equipment.
Synonyms
hurly-burly, hectic activity, bustle, rush, flurry, to-do, fuss, panic, turmoil
archaic hurry-scurry
succession, series, sequence, progression, string, chain, cycle, round, merry-go-round
2 [with adjective or noun modifier] A specified kind of sweet or biscuit with a spiral shape: a hazelnut whirl...
- This is piped out into individual chocolate-size whirls and left to dry overnight.
- A collection of male senior employees gather in the boardroom to talk to Balls over coffee and Viennese whirls.
- Towards the end Alex pronounced herself bored and I caught myself trying to come up with a suitable answer to the question ‘how do you make a Viennese whirl?’
Phrases
give something a whirl
in a whirl
Derivatives
whirler
- Five dancers emerged and performed a hypnotic dance, reminiscent of Mevlana's whirlers in Konya.
- This is a state-sanctioned occasion, and it is a stately spectacle with many whirlers and a semi-classical orchestra staged in a basketball stadium in front of coachloads of Japanese tourists.
whirlingly
- Lastly the sound of waves wash over into the Shooglenifty track which again starts slowly but builds whirlingly up until you definitely need a beer.
- Milton's enthusiastic attack will undoubtedly bring to a whirlingly triumphant conclusion, one of the most exciting pieces written by this master of the musical build-up.
- If the whirlingly excitable and headlong finale does not match the quality of the other two movements it is sold by the eager and furious Flier and Kondrashin for all it's worth.
Origin
Middle English: the verb probably from Old Norse hvirfla 'turn about'; the noun partly from Middle Low German, Middle Dutch wervel 'spindle', or from Old Norse hvirfill 'circle', from a Germanic base meaning 'rotate'.
Rhymes
- signboard
- sign design
- sign digit
- signed-rank test
- signed, sealed, and delivered (or signed and sealed)
- signee
- signer
- signet
- signet ring
- signet ring cell
- sign-event
- sign for
- signifer
- signifiable
- signifiant
- signific
- significacio
- significal
- significance
- significance level
- significance test
- significance testing
- significance threshold
- significance value
- significand