purl

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɜːl/, [pʰəːɫ]
• IPA^(key): /pɝl/, [pʰɝɫ]
• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)l
• Homophone: pearl

Etymology 1

Unknown; apparently related to Scots and dialect pirl ("twist, ripple, whirl, spin"), and possibly to Older Scots pyrl ("thrust or poke at"). Compare Venetian pirlo, an embellishment where the woven threads are twisted together. May be unrelated to purfle, though the meanings are similar.

Noun

purl (plural purls)

1. A particular stitch in knitting; an inversion of stitches giving the work a ribbed or waved appearance.
2. The edge of lace trimmed with loops.
3. An embroidered and puckered border; a hem or fringe, often of gold or silver twist; also, a pleat or fold, as of a band.
   • (Can we date this quote by Sir Philip Sidney and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     A triumphant chariot made of carnation velvet, enriched with purl and pearl.

Translations

a particular stitch in knitting

• Dutch: averecht (nl)
• Finnish: nurja silmukka
• German: linke Masche f
• Irish: lúb iompaithe f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: rovescio (it) m, punto rovescio
• Manx: lhoob bun ry skyn m

Verb

purl (third-person singular simple present purls, present participle purling, simple past and past participle purled)

1. To decorate with fringe or embroidered edge

   Needlework purled with gold.

2. (knitting) an inverted stitch producing ribbing etc

   Knit one, purl two.

Etymology 2

from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English pirle (“whirligig”), Middle (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Italian pirla (“whipping top”)

Noun

purl (plural purls)

1. a heavy or headlong fall; an upset.

Verb

purl (third-person singular simple present purls, present participle purling, simple past and past participle purled)

1. (archaic) To upset, to spin, capsize, fall heavily, fall headlong.

   The huntsman was purled from his horse.

Related terms

• purler

Etymology 3

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old Norse purla (“to babble”)

Verb

purl (third-person singular simple present purls, present participle purling, simple past and past participle purled)

1. (intransitive) To flow with a murmuring sound in swirls and eddies.
   • (Can we date this quote by Alexander Pope and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     Swift o'er the rolling pebbles, down the hills, / Louder and louder purl the falling rills.

   • 1846 October, Alfred B[illings] Street, “A Day’s Hunting about the Mongaup”, in George R[ex] Graham, editor, Graham’s American Monthly Magazine of Literature and Art, volume XXIX, number 4, Philadelphia, Pa.: George R. Graham & Co., […], →OCLC, page 190:

     There is a water-break formed by a small terrace of rock in mid-stream, and purling with a hollow, delicious monotone—an island of pebbles is above, with here and there smaller ones near the "forks."

2. To rise in circles, ripples, or undulations; to curl; to mantle.
   • (Can we date this quote by Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     thin winding breath which purled up to the sky

Noun

purl (plural purls)

1. (UK, dialect) A circle made by the motion of a fluid; an eddy; a ripple.
   • (Can we date this quote by Drayton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     Whose stream an easy breath doth seem to blow, / Which on the sparkling gravel runs in purles, / As though the waves had been of silver curls.

   • (Can we date this quote by Jeremy Taylor and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     So have I seen the little purls of a stream […] intenerate the stubborn pavement.

2. (UK, dialect) A gentle murmuring sound, such as that produced by the running of a liquid among obstructions.

   the purl of a brook

Translations

to make the sound of gently running water

• Maori: hīwawā
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: журчать (ru) (žurčatʹ)

Etymology 4

Possibly from the pearl-like appearance caused by bubbles on the surface of the liquid.

Noun

purl (uncountable)

1. (archaic) Ale or beer spiced with wormwood or other bitter herbs, regarded as a tonic.
   • (Can we date this quote?), The Spectator, number 88

     A double mug of purle.

2. (archaic) Hot beer mixed with gin, sugar, and spices.
   • (Can we date this quote by Addison and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     Drank a glass of purl to recover appetite.

   • (Can we date this quote by Charles Dickens and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     Drinking hot purl, and smoking pipes.

Etymology 5

Noun

purl (plural purls)

1. (UK, dialect) A tern.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “purl”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• PLUR, plur.