twirl
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L28997 on Wikidata ↗verb
- to spin quickly and lightly round, especially repeatedly
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /twɜːl/ / /twɝl/ / /twøːl/
noun
Etymology: Of Scandinavian origin, akin to Norwegian Nynorsk tvirla, Old High German dweran (German zwirlen, quirlen), Dutch dwarrelen and Icelandic þyrill; all from Proto-Germanic *þwirilaz (“stirring-stick, whisk”), *þweraną (“to stir”). Or, an alteration of tirl (“to twist”), with influence from whirl.
- A movement where a person spins round elegantly; a pirouette.
- Any rotating movement; a spin.
“The conductor gave his baton a twirl, and the orchestra began to play.”
“When the cock had now crowed for the third time, and the little larks had made their first twirl in the sky, and the infant light appeared in solitary white streaks in the east, then it went hush, hush, hush, through the bushes, and flowers, and stalks; and the hills rang again, and opened, and the little men went down.”
- A little twist of some substance; a swirl.
“Place the cream in a piping bag with a fairly large star pipe attached, fill each tartlet with a twirl of cream and top with a strawberry.”
- A prison guard.
“Which was in the main childishness and pettiness, the reason for this was that most of the twirls and the governors had […]”
verb
Etymology: Of Scandinavian origin, akin to Norwegian Nynorsk tvirla, Old High German dweran (German zwirlen, quirlen), Dutch dwarrelen and Icelandic þyrill; all from Proto-Germanic *þwirilaz (“stirring-stick, whisk”), *þweraną (“to stir”). Or, an alteration of tirl (“to twist”), with influence from whirl.
- To perform a twirl.
- To rotate rapidly.
“See ruddy maids, / Some taught with dexterous hand to twirl the wheel.”
“No more beneath soft eve's consenting star / Fandango twirls his jocund castanet.”
- To twist round.
“He inflated his chest, twirled his moustache, and thumped the table with a revulsion to thunderous indignation.”
- To pitch.
“When the batteries were announced, however, and Herb Pennock of the Boston Red Sox, probably the best pitcher in all baseballdom, was named to twirl for the invading team, we felt we had been tricked.”