Crossword clues for whirlwind
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Whirlwind \Whirl"wind`\, n. [Cf. Icel. hvirfilvindr, Sw. hvirfvelvind, Dan. hvirvelvind, G. wirbelwind. See Whirl, and Wind, n.]
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A violent windstorm of limited extent, as the tornado, characterized by an inward spiral motion of the air with an upward current in the center; a vortex of air. It usually has a rapid progressive motion.
The swift dark whirlwind that uproots the woods. And drowns the villages.
--Bryant.Note: Some meteorologists apply the word whirlwind to the larger rotary storm also, such as cyclones.
Fig.: A body of objects sweeping violently onward. ``The whirlwind of hounds and hunters.''
--Macaulay.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
a. rapid and minimal: ''a whirlwind tour'', ''a whirlwind guide''. n. 1 A violent windstorm of limited extent, as the tornado, characterized by an inward spiral motion of the air with an upward current in the center; a vortex of air. It usually has a rapid progressive motion. 2 (context figuratively English) A person or body of objects or events sweeping violently onward.
WordNet
n. a more or less vertical column of air whirling around itself as it moves over the surface of the Earth
Wikipedia
Whirlwind is a novel by James Clavell, first published in 1986. It forms part of The Asian Saga and is chronologically the last book in the series.
Set in Iran in early 1979, it follows the fortunes of a group of Struans helicopter pilots, Iranian officials and oil men and their families in the turmoil surrounding the fall of the Iranian monarchy and the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Like many of Clavell's novels, it is very long and is composed of many interweaving plot strands involving a large cast of characters, as well as a detailed portrayal of Iranian culture.
The novel is closely inspired by the true struggle of Bristow Helicopters to escape the revolutionary forces and get their employees and equipment out of the unstable, deteriorating situation in the region. Alan Bristow, chairman of Bristow Helicopter commissioned a journalist, Jackie Griffin, who was married to one of his employees to write a report on the events in Iran. Bristow then gave his friend, James Clavell the resulting script to form the basis of the novel. Much of the story mirrors these and other contemporary events. In February 1979, U.S. Ambassador Adolph "Spike" Dubs was murdered in Kabul after Afghan security forces burst in on his kidnappers, the actual event both mentioned and fictionalized into the plot of Whirlwind. Other companies operating in Iran faced similar dilemmas. For example, Ross Perot's Electronic Data Systems similarly became very involved in the rescue of two executives from prison in Tehran, events dramatised in Ken Follett's novel On Wings of Eagles.
Whirlwind is a fictional character, a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
A whirlwind is any kind of vertical wind vortex. It may also refer to:
The WhirlWind is a roller coaster at Seabreeze Amusement Park in Rochester, New York. It is where Quantum Loop stood until Winter 2004 when the WhirlWind was added.
A whirlwind is a weather phenomenon in which a vortex of wind (a vertically oriented rotating column of air) forms due to instabilities and turbulence created by heating and flow ( current) gradients. Whirlwinds occur all over the world and in any season.
Whirlwind is a 1988 Soviet action film directed by Bako Sadykov. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.
Whirlwind'' (Spanish:Torbellino'') is a 1941 Spanish comedy film directed by Luis Marquina and starring Estrellita Castro, Manuel Luna and Tony D'Algy. It was made by Spain's largest film company of the era CIFESA.
Whirlwind was a 1930 yacht of the J Class. It was ordered by Landon Ketchum Thorne and designed by Lewis Francis Herreshoff. Whirlwind was scrapped in 1935.
Whirlwind is the fourth album by singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Andrew Gold. It was released in 1980 on Asylum Records. It is Gold's final major label album and last solo album of any kind for over a decade.
Whirlwind (Persian: Gerdbad) is a 1953 Iranian film directed by Hassan Kheradmand.
Usage examples of "whirlwind".
This is caused by the fact that the ascending air, having attained a height above the earth, settles down behind the storm, forming an anticyclone or mass of dry air, which presses against the retreating side of the great whirlwind.
Before long a sudden whirlwind arose, and drove away the pitch-dark mist usually hovering over the Land of Oblivion, and in the wan light, I could see myriads of livid candles, and by their gleam, I obtained a far-off view of the mouth of the bottomless abyss.
But Buli the Whirlwind--for he it was who made the warriors and their gins to run fast through the scrub, who laid low the brigalow trees, and carved spears therefrom, who with his weapons of war swept like a tempest over the herds of white men, and killed the white men in the camps they had made, therefore was he named the Whirlwind--he, Whirlwind, would swear now before the sister of the Pleiades, Cloud-Daughter, that he and his warriors, old men, and gins, would obey the word of Cloud-Daughter till, after many days marching through the scrubs, they should reach Maianbar the Deep Tank.
Outside the quaternion were the dancing Pauppukkeewis, the Whirlwind, and the fierce and shifty hero, Monobozho, the North-West Wind.
It was a repetition of the first round, with Sandel attacking like a whirlwind and with the audience indignantly demanding why King did not fight.
Alex Volpone reflected on the whirlwind events which had buffeted his life since his last meeting with Patt, Stillworth, and the others.
A beautiful love, expressed in whirlwind activity, and a schoolgirl vocabulary, and a greatness of spirit that found its expression in jelly tartlets and exquisite little sandwiches and an unfailing charity of mind.
His claws flashing, his body a whirlwind, he met the Venesects head-on.
The high-speed dash to Reagan International Airport and the equally fast helicopter flight to Chantilly had been a whirlwind of sights and sounds competing with his growing curiosity.
All I couldst see was his glaring eyes, his big shoulders hunched and rocking as he hit--and a perfect whirlwind of big glove-covered clubs.
Deluging Heaven with fire, and the lashed deeps Glitter and boil beneath: it rages on, One mighty stream, whirlwind and waves upthrown, Lightning, and hail, and darkness eddying by.
She ran across it, dodging between tables, and burst out the front door in time to see the dark-cloaked mage spur out of the innyard like a vengeful whirlwind.
It was the Irishwoman, Kitty Fagan, huddled together in such amorphous guise, that she looked as if she had been fitted in a tempest of petticoats and a whirlwind of old shawls, who presented herself at the door.
What could landlubbers ever know of the whirlwind courtships of the riverfolk, the few scattered hours together when the two ships met in port?
Of the drowning mountains, in and out, As the thistle-beard on a whirlwind sails-- While the flood was filling those hollow vales.