whirl.
To rotate, revolve, spin or turn rapidly.
Meaning & usage
To rotate, revolve, spin or turn rapidly.
The dancer whirled across the stage, stopped, and whirled around to face the audience.
To have a sensation of spinning or reeling.
My head is whirling after all that drink.
To make something or someone whirl.
The dancer whirled his partner round on her toes.
To remove or carry quickly with, or as with, a revolving motion; to snatch.
Where this word comes from
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.
An act of whirling.
She gave the top a whirl and it spun across the floor.
Something that whirls, such as a whirlwind.
A confused tumult.
A rapid series of events.
My life is one social whirl.
Dizziness or giddiness.
My mind was in a whirl.
A brief experiment or trial.
OK, let's give it a whirl.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English whirl, wherwille, whorwhil, wervel, from Old English hwirfel, hwyrfel (“whirlpool”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwirbil, from Proto-Germanic *hwirbilaz, *hwarbilaz (“swirl, whirl, whirlpool”), equivalent to wharve + -el; and also Old Norse hvirfill (“ring, circle, crown”), whence Danish hvirvel (“cowlick”), Dutch werveling (“whirling, vortex”), German Low German Warvel (“whirl, whirlpool”), German Wirbel (“whirl, whirlpool”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.