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A violent whirling wind; specifically (Meteorol.), a tempest distinguished by a rapid whirling and slow progressive motion, usually accompaned with severe thunder, lightning, and torrents of rain, and commonly of short duration and small breadth; a small cyclone.

Whirling in the manner of a top. A spiral and turbinated motion of the whole. Bentley.

The act of spinning or whirling, as a top.

The act of twirling; a rapid circular motion; a whirl or whirling; quick rotation.

To rise upward in a whirl; to raise upward with a whirling motion.

Turning round; whirling; rotary; revolving; as, vertiginous motion. Some vertiginous whirl of fortune. De Quincey.

Turning, or whirling; winding; twining; voluble.

A mass of fluid, especially of a liquid, having a whirling or circular motion tending to form a cavity or vacuum in the center of the circle, and to draw in towards the center bodies subject to its action; the form assumed by a fluid in such motion; a whirlpool; an eddy.

Of or pertaining to a vortex or vortexes; resembling a vortex in form or motion; whirling; as, a vortical motion. -- Vor"ti*cal*ly, adv.

Vortical; whirling; as, a vorticose motion.

g disk when the axis of rotation is inclined to that of the disk; -- said of a turning or whirling body; as, a top wabbles; a buzz saw wabbles. wobble.

A dance performed by two persons in circular figures with a whirling motion; also, a piece of music composed in triple measure for this kind of dance.

An aquatic beetle of the genus Gyrinus. See Whirling. Weaver bird (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of Asiatic, Fast Indian, and African birds belonging to Ploceus and allied genera of the family Ploceidæ. Weaver birds resemble finches and sparrows in size, colors, and shape of the bill. They construct pensile nests…

A buzzing or whizzing sound produced by rapid or whirling motion; as, the whir of a partridge; the whir of a spinning wheel.

idly; 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. The wooden engine flies and whirls about. Dryden.

A whirling blast or wind. A whirl-blast from behind the hill. Wordsworth.