• (British) IPA: /wɜːl/ or IPA: /ʍɜːl/ (some Welsh and English accents)
• (America) enPR: wûrl, IPA: /wɝl/ or enPR: hwûrl, IPA: /ʍɝl/ (some Welsh and English accents)
• (Scotland, Ireland) IPA: /ʍɪɾ(ə̯)l/

whirl (whirls, present participle whirling; past and past participle whirled)

1. (intransitive) To rotate, revolve, spin or turn rapidly.

   The dancer whirled across the stage, stopped, and whirled around to face the audience.

   • He whirls his sword around without delay.

   • 1900, L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

     The house whirled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air. Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon.

2. (intransitive) To have a sensation of spinning or reeling.

   My head is whirling after all that drink.

3. (transitive) To make something or someone whirl.

   The dancer whirled his partner round on her toes.

4. (transitive) To remove or carry quickly with, or as with, a revolving motion; to snatch.
   • c. 1630, John Milton, “The Passion”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […] , London: Printed by Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Moſely,  […], published 1645, OCLC 606951673 ↗:

     See, see the chariot, and those rushing wheels, / That whirled the prophet up at Chebar flood.

   • 1855, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page number(s))”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], OCLC 1013215631 ↗:

     The passionate heart of the poet is whirl'd into folly.

• French: tourbillonner
• German: wirbeln
• Italian: turbinare, piroettare, roteare
• Russian: вертеться

• German: wirbeln, schnell drehen, im Kreise drehen

whirl (plural whirls)

1. An act of whirling.

   She gave the top a whirl and it spun across the floor.

2. Something that whirls.
3. A confused tumult.
4. A rapid series of events.

   My life is one social whirl.

5. Dizziness or giddiness.

   My mind was in a whirl.

6. (informal) qual usually following “give” A brief experiment or trial.

   OK, let's give it a whirl.

• German: Wirbeln, Wirbel

• German: Trubel, Durcheinander

• German: Strudel

• German: Taumel, Gewirbel, Schwindel, Durcheinander

• German: Versuch, Chance