whirl
/(h)wɝl/ verb C1- 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.
He/she/it whirls · Past whirled · Past participle whirled · -ing form whirling
Verb forms
- Base form
- whirl
- He/she/it
- whirls
- Past
- whirled
- Past participle
- whirled
- -ing form
- whirling
From the library
They whirled up Forty-second to Broadway, and then down the white-starred lane that leads from the soft meadows of sunset to the rocky hills of morning.
Mowgli thrust his dead branch into the fire till the twigs lit and crackled, and whirled it above his head among the cowering wolves.
The last words were shrieked as he was being swung through the air, but Rann nodded and rose up till he looked no bigger than a speck of dust, and there he hung, watching with his telescope eyes the swaying of the treetops as Mowgli’s escort whirled along.
My hands grew cold then and my head fairly whirled around as I picked it up.
Other matches
Learn whirl in real texts
With a free account, hover any word in the library for its meaning, hear it read aloud, save words for review timed to your memory, and see how much of each book you already know.