swirl
To twist or whirl, as an eddyTo twist or whirl, as an eddy.
» Adriano felt the wind swirl around him.
Amastan · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
4 senses(ambitransitive)To twist or whirl, as an eddy.
I swirled my brush around in the paint.
To be arranged in a twist, spiral or whorl.
(figuratively, intransitive)To circulate.
(dated)To mingle interracially.
- turn in a twisting or spinning motion
- flow in a circular current, of liquids
Examples
16 sentencesAdriano felt the wind swirl around him.
The leaves swirled in the autumn breeze.
A thousand incoherent ideas swirled around my mind.
deTausend zusammenhanglose Ideen wirbelten mir durch den Kopf. — Yorwba
The wind made the sand swirl and sting.
Yanni had so many things swirling in his head.
Translations
3 languagesOrigin
From Middle English swirlen (“to eddy, swirl”), probably from Old Norse *svirla (“to swirlFrom Middle English swirlen (“to eddy, swirl”), probably from Old Norse *svirla (“to swirl”), a frequentative form of Old Norse sverra (“to swing, twirl”). Cognate with Scots swirl, sworl (“to eddy, swirl”), Norwegian Nynorsk svirla (“to whirl around; swirl”), Swedish sorla (“to murmur, buzz”), Dutch zwirrelen (“to swirl”). Compare also West Frisian swiere (“to reel, whirl”), Dutch zwieren (“to reel, swing around”), German Low German swirren (“to whizz, whirl or buzz around”), German schwirren (“to whirr, whizz, buzz”), Swedish svirra (“to whirr about, buzz, hum”), Danish svirre (“to whizz, whirr”). Related to English swarm.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
swirls, swirling, swirled, swirledSynonyms
6 synonymsWord family
7 related wordsLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, regular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.