• (British) IPA: /pɜːl/, [pʰəːɫ]
• (America) IPA: /pɝl/, [pʰɝɫ]

purl (plural purls)

1. A particular stitch in knitting; an inversion of stitches giving the work a ribbed or waved appearance.
2. The edge of lace trimmed with loops.
3. An embroidered and puckered border; a hem or fringe, often of gold or silver twist; also, a pleat or fold, as of a band.

   • A triumphant chariot made of carnation velvet, enriched with purl and pearl.

• German: linke Masche
• Italian: rovescio, punto rovescio

purl (purls, present participle purling; past and past participle purled)

1. To decorate with fringe or embroidered edge

   Needlework purled with gold.

2. (knitting) an inverted stitch producing ribbing etc

   Knit one, purl two.

purl (plural purls)

1. a heavy or headlong fall; an upset.

purl (purls, present participle purling; past and past participle purled)

1. (archaic) To upset, to spin, capsize, fall heavily, fall headlong.

   The huntsman was purled from his horse.

• purler

purl (purls, present participle purling; past and past participle purled)

1. (intransitive) To flow with a murmuring sound in swirls and eddies.
   • 1715, Homer; [Alexander] Pope, transl., “Book XXI”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume I, London: Printed by W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott between the Temple-Gates, OCLC 670734254 ↗:

     Swift o'er the rolling pebbles, down the hills, / Louder and louder purl the falling rills.

2. To rise in circles, ripples, or undulations; to curl; to mantle.
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lvcrece (First Quarto), London: Printed by Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], OCLC 236076664 ↗:

     thin winding breath which purled up to the sky

purl (plural purls)

1. (UK, dialect) A circle made by the motion of a fluid; an eddy; a ripple.

   • Whose stream an easy breath doth seem to blow, / Which on the sparkling gravel runs in purles, / As though the waves had been of silver curls.

   • So have I seen the little purls of a stream […] intenerate the stubborn pavement.

2. (UK, dialect) A gentle murmuring sound, such as that produced by the running of a liquid among obstructions.

   the purl of a brook

• Russian: журчать

purl (uncountable)

1. (archaic) Ale or beer spiced with wormwood or other bitter herbs, regarded as a tonic.
   • 1711, The Spectator, number 88

     A double mug of purle.

2. (archaic) Hot beer mixed with gin, sugar, and spices.

   • Drank a glass of purl to recover appetite.

   • 1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume (please specify ), London: Chapman & Hall, […], OCLC 633494058 ↗, chapter 60:

     Drinking hot purl, and smoking pipes.

purl (plural purls)

1. (UK, dialect) A tern.