whirl

English

Etymology

From Middle English whirlen, contracted from earlier *whervelen, possibly from Old English *hweorflian, frequentative form of Old English hweorfan (“to turn”), itself from Proto-Germanic *hwerbaną (“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.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /wɜːl/ or IPA^(key): /ʍɜːl/ (some Welsh and English accents)
• (US) enPR: wûrl, IPA^(key): /wɝl/ or enPR: hwûrl, IPA^(key): /ʍɝl/ (some Welsh and English accents)
• (Scotland, Ireland) IPA^(key): /ʍɪɾ(ə̯)l/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Rhymes: -ɜː(r)l

• Homophone: whorl

Verb

whirl (third-person singular simple present whirls, present participle whirling, simple past and past participle whirled)

1. (intransitive) To rotate, revolve, spin or turn rapidly.

   The dancer whirled across the stage, stopped, and whirled around to face the audience.

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

     He whirls his sword around without delay.

   • 1900, L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

     The house whirled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air. Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon.

2. (intransitive) To have a sensation of spinning or reeling.

   My head is whirling after all that drink.

3. (transitive) To make something or someone whirl.

   The dancer whirled his partner round on her toes.

4. (transitive) To remove or carry quickly with, or as with, a revolving motion; to snatch.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     See, see the chariot, and those rushing wheels, / That whirled the prophet up at Chebar flood.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Alfred Tennyson

     The passionate heart of the poet is whirl'd into folly.

Translations

To rotate, revolve, spin rapidly

• French: tourbillonner (fr)
• Icelandic: hvirfla
• Ido: vorticar (io)
• Italian: turbinare (it), piroettare, roteare

• Maori: kōumuumu, tāwhirowhiro
• Norwegian: virvle, snurre
• Russian: вертеться (ru) (vertetʹsja), кружи́ться (ru) (kružítʹsja)
• Swedish: virvla (sv), snurra (sv)

to make something whirl around

• Maori: kōumuumu, kōripo, tāwhiuwhiu

Noun

whirl (plural whirls)

1. An act of whirling.

   She gave the top a whirl and it spun across the floor.

2. Something that whirls.
3. A confused tumult.
4. A rapid series of events.

   My life is one social whirl.

5. Dizziness or giddiness.

   My mind was in a whirl.

6. (informal) (usually following “give”) A brief experiment or trial.

   OK, let's give it a whirl.

Derived terms

• whirligig
• whirlpool