Find the word definition

Crossword clues for swirl

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
swirl
I.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
mist swirls (=moves in circles)
▪ The boat disappeared into the swirling mist.
swirling fog (=which blows around)
▪ She could not see through the swirling fog.
swirling snow (=blowing around as it falls)
▪ It was difficult to see in the swirling snow.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
around
▪ Sensual pleasure had been swirling around her.
▪ Snowflakes swirl around in front of my window, and slowly, imperceptibly, they mat down the leaves and the grass.
▪ Oil gushed out and swirled around his feet.
▪ Simon swirled around in his seat.
▪ The starlings were disturbed, swirling around in S-shapes and parabolas and unexpected clusters.
▪ They kept quite still, although all the commotion of the station swirled around them.
▪ The three ships swirled around my ship, neatly bracketing it as they matched its speed.
round
▪ Greeny-brown water swirled round and through gaps in the wood, which was broken and jagged like rotten teeth.
▪ Splintered wood and shoes swirling round and round.
▪ Both sides fought with abandon, crimson water swirling round their knees.
▪ The noises swirl round me, but it don't bother me.
▪ I, m just water swirling round them and they're too busy to feel me.
■ NOUN
water
▪ Greeny-brown water swirled round and through gaps in the wood, which was broken and jagged like rotten teeth.
▪ Both sides fought with abandon, crimson water swirling round their knees.
▪ Between her feet, water swirled down the plughole, taking red and black threads of blood and dirt with it.
▪ The water swirled cold round her feet, and she had lost sight of Adam.
▪ Silvery water swirled beneath and we spied grey wag tails on wet boulders in mid-stream.
▪ I, m just water swirling round them and they're too busy to feel me.
wind
▪ Just gray skies, continuing strong winds, and swirling deep snow.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
Swirl butter into the sauce.
▪ Dust swirled like smoke in the evening sunshine.
▪ Jessie's pale dress swirled round her slender ankles.
▪ Reports that the company is in trouble continue to swirl.
▪ The ice cubes swirled down the drain.
▪ The wind swirling around the tree had blown all the snow away from its trunk.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Add a dot of cream to each, then swirl with a knife to create a pattern.
▪ As the submersible glides over them, clouds of orange dust rise, swirl about, and slowly drift back down.
▪ George said something perfectly right about the wine, swirling it in the high-stemmed tulip glass.
▪ Robert was duly acquitted, but the mystery swirled on.
▪ She toyed with it with her fork, pushing it slowly around the plate, swirling it into patterns.
▪ Smoke swirled out of the grass next to the first few Hueys.
▪ The three ships swirled around my ship, neatly bracketing it as they matched its speed.
▪ The traffic swirled by on the splashing road.
II.noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Leaving behind the familiar phrasings, Coltrane began to produce swirls of sound and visceral shrieks that puzzled and angered music critics.
▪ Pipe the chocolate into swirls over the chocolate-coated truffles.
▪ The sky hung low, a cloudy canvas with swirls of dark purple and stormy greys.
▪ The wind had strengthened, and there was more rain too, blowing in swirls.
▪ They're inconsequential swirls, all wah wah pedal and no tune.
▪ To follow Bavarian creams and chocolate chestnut swirl.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Swirl

Swirl \Swirl\, v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Swirled; p. pr. & vb. n. Swirling.] [Akin to Norw. svirla to whirl, freq. of sverra to whirl, Dan. svirre, G. schwirren to whiz, to buzz. To whirl, or cause to whirl, as in an eddy. ``The river swirled along.''
--C. Kingsley.

Swirl

Swirl \Swirl\, n. A whirling motion; an eddy, as of water; a whirl. ``The silent swirl of bats.''
--Mrs. Browning.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
swirl

1510s (transitive), with an isolated instance from 14c.; from swirl (n.). Intransitive sense "form in eddies, whirl in eddies" is from 1755. Related: Swirled; swirling.

swirl

early 15c., "whirlpool, eddy," originally Scottish, of uncertain origin, perhaps related to dialectal Norwegian svirla or Dutch zwirrelen "to whirl." The meaning "whirling movement" is from 1818.

Wiktionary
swirl

n. 1 A whirling eddy. 2 A twist or coil of something. vb. (context ambitransitive English) To twist or whirl, as an eddy.

WordNet
swirl
  1. n. the shape of something rotating rapidly [syn: whirl, vortex, convolution]

  2. v. turn in a twisting or spinning motion; "The leaves swirled in the autumn wind" [syn: twirl, twiddle, whirl]

  3. flow in a circular current, of liquids [syn: eddy, purl, whirlpool, whirl]

Wikipedia
Swirl (band)

Swirl were a Sydney, Australia-based indie rock band, forming around 1990 and breaking up in 2002. They released three albums and a number of EP's, mostly through independent Sydney label Half A Cow.

Swirl (organization)

Swirl is an American anti-racist grassroots organization, incorporated in 2000, that serves the mixed heritage community. It aims to develop a national consciousness of mixed heritage issues to empower members to organize and take action towards progressive social change. There are currently chapters in New York, Boston, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Swirl has worked to increase voter participation and knowledge about legislation affecting the mixed heritage community. Is also maintains an email listserv which disseminates information relevant to the mixed heritage community.

Swirl

Swirl may refer to:

  • Swirl (band), an Australian indie rock band
  • Swirl (film), a 2011 Brazilian film
  • Swirl (organization), a multi-ethnic organization
  • Swirl 360, an American pop-rock band
  • Sega Swirl, a 1999 puzzle game for the Sega Dreamcast
  • Swirl (fluid dynamics), a quantity in fluid dynamics
Swirl (film)

Swirl is a 2011 Brazilian drama film directed by Clarissa Campolina and Helvécio Marins Jr.

Usage examples of "swirl".

She wore a patchwork coat that swirled around her as if alive, shifting with the colors of the brick and misty rain.

AH she could see of that was the hilt: a swirl of basketry to protect the back of the hand.

But in the night Laura dreamed that Pa was playing the wild storm-tune on his fiddle and when she screamed to him to stop, the tune was a blinding blizzard swirling around her and it had frozen her to solid ice.

She saw not a real flesh-and-blood person but a translucent apparition surrounded by dark swirling blotches of black ichor.

The clouds of sulfur and ash were swirling around the Brane Hole, which seemed to be growing smaller.

The thoughts and emotions swirling through the gloom were darker, more dangerous, against the brassy twirling of the little dark-clothed, insectoid band.

They ran laughing, Janine clutching her wide brimmed straw hat, and Roland trying to shield her from the storm of confetti that swirled around them.

Hen Gian spit into the surf and cursed, but this time Brine did not understand the language and no blue swirls cut the air.

But then in the swirling madness he caught sight of an angular yellow-and-black figure just in front of him, clutching a short sword in one bristly claw and a spear in another.

A cloying smell of burned sugar burped out of the exhaust, swirling around the vehicle.

Baseball caps hung on the walls, along with paintings of pitchers and hitters, expressionistic swirls of colour.

A swirl of rusty aspen leaves blew down, clinging momentarily to the homespun of their breeches and the light wool of their stockings.

I, lined and wrinkled, leaning, tucked in, shaking just a bit in the limbs, aching just a bit in the joints, showing patches and patterns of incorrect color, purples on the legs, brown maculae on the arms, swirls and masses on the face beneath the surgery and appliances.

Jama Masjid, in the dervishes of litter along Chandni Chowk, in the starlings swirling above Connaught Circus.

The meniscus roiled, then broke open, causing the ghostly mist to swirl and vanish.