whirl (n.)

  1. confused movement; he was caught up in a whirl of work; a commotion of people fought for the exits

    [ Syn: commotion ]

  2. the shape of something rotating rapidly

    [ Syn: swirl , vortex , convolution ]

  3. a usually brief attempt; he took a crack at it; I gave it a whirl

    [ Syn: crack , fling , go , pass , offer ]

  4. the act of rotating rapidly; he gave the crank a spin; it broke off after much twisting

    [ Syn: spin , twirl , twist , twisting ]

    whirl (v.)

  1. turn in a twisting or spinning motion; The leaves swirled in the autumn wind

    [ Syn: twirl , swirl , twiddle ]

  2. cause to spin; spin a coin

    [ Syn: birl , spin , twirl ]

  3. flow in a circular current, of liquids

    [ Syn: eddy , purl , whirlpool , swirl ]

  4. revolve quickly and repeatedly around ones own axis; The dervishes whirl around and around without getting dizzy

    [ Syn: spin , spin around , reel , gyrate ]

  5. fly around; The clothes tumbled in the dryer; rising smoke whirled in the air

    [ Syn: tumble , whirl around ]

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2011 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.