“whirled” is a form of
whirl
UK /wɜːl/ · US /(h)wɝl/ verb, noun
Forms whirls whirling whirled
- verb (intransitive) To rotate, revolve, spin or turn rapidly. “The dancer whirled across the stage, stopped, and whirled around to face the audience.”
- verb (intransitive) To have a sensation of spinning or reeling. “My head is whirling after all that drink.”
- verb (transitive) To make something or someone whirl. “The dancer whirled his partner round on her toes.”
- verb (transitive) To remove or carry quickly with, or as with, a revolving motion; to snatch.
- noun An act of whirling. “She gave the top a whirl and it spun across the floor.”
- noun Something that whirls, such as a whirlwind.
- noun A confused tumult.
- noun A rapid series of events. “My life is one social whirl.”
- noun Dizziness or giddiness. “My mind was in a whirl.”
- noun (informal, idiomatic) A brief experiment or trial. “OK, let's give it a whirl.”
Synonyms
swim reel commotion swirl vortex convolution crack fling go pass offer spin twirl twist twisting twiddle birl eddy purl whirlpool spin around gyrate tumble whirl around
Etymology
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.
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”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To turn round rapidly; to cause to rotate with velocity; to make to revolve.
- verb To remove or carry quickly with, or as with, a revolving motion; to snatch; to harry. Chaucer.
- verb To be turned round rapidly; to move round with velocity; to revolve or rotate with great speed; to gyrate. "The whirling year vainly my dizzy eyes pursue." J. H. Newman.
- verb To move hastily or swiftly.
Etymology [OE. whirlen, probably from the Scand.; cf. Icel. & Sw. hvirfla, Dan. hvirvle; akin to D. wervelen, G. wirbeln, freq. of the verb seen in Icel. hverfa to turn. sq. root16. See Wharf, and cf. Warble, Whorl.]
Etymology [Cf. Dan. hvirvel, Sw. hvirfvel, Icel. hvirfill the crown of the head, G. wirbel whirl, crown of the head, D. wervel. See Whirl, v. t.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “whirl”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details