gyre

English

Etymology

From Latin gȳrus (“circle”), from Ancient Greek γῦρος (gûros). Doublet of gyro and gyrus.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aɪə(r)
• IPA^(key): /dʒaɪ.ə/
• enPR: jīər IPA^(key): /dʒaɪ.ɚ/

Noun

gyre (plural gyres)

1. A swirling vortex.
2. A circular current, especially a large-scale ocean current.
3. A circular motion, or a circle described by a moving body; a turn or revolution; a circuit.
   • Dryden

     Quick and more quick he spins in giddy gyres.

   • Elizabeth Barrett Browning

     Still expanding and ascending gyres.

   • William Butler Yeats

     Turning and turning in the widening gyre

     The falcon cannot hear the falconer […]

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:gyre.

Translations

a swirling vortex

• Bulgarian: вихър (bg) m (vihǎr), водовъртеж (bg) m (vodovǎrtež)
• Finnish: pyörre (fi)
• German: Strudel (de) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: вихрь (ru) m (vixrʹ)
• Spanish: remolino (es) m

a circular current, especially a large-scale ocean current

• Bulgarian: кръговрат (krǎgovrat)
• Catalan: gir (ca) m, gir oceànic m
• Finnish: pyörre (fi)
• French: gyre (fr) m, gyre océanique m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: ozeanischer Wirbel m, Wirbel (de) m
• Portuguese: giro (pt) m
• Spanish: giro (es) m, giro oceánico m

Verb

1. (intransitive) to whirl
   • 1605, Michael Drayton, Minor Poems of Michael Drayton, poem "From Eclogue ij":

     Which from their proper orbes not goe,
     Whether they gyre swift or slowe:

   • 1872, Lewis Carroll, poem Jabberwocky:

     'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
     Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

See also

• Ocean gyre on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Jabberwocky

Anagrams

• -ergy, Grey, grey

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Latin

Noun

(deprecated template usage) gȳre

1. vocative singular of gȳrus