twirl

English

Etymology

Of Scandinavian origin, akin to Norwegian Nynorsk tvirla, Old High German dweran[1] (German zwirlen, quirlen), Dutch dwarrelen and Icelandic þyrill;[2] all from Proto-Germanic *þwirilaz (“stirring-stick, whisk”), *þweraną (“to stir”).[3] Or, an alteration of tirl (“to twist”), with influence from whirl.[4][5][6]

Pronunciation

  • Audio (US):(file)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈtwɜːl/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈtwɝl/
  • Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)l

Noun

twirl (plural twirls)

  1. A movement where a person spins round elegantly; a pirouette.
  2. Any rotating movement; a spin.
    The conductor gave his baton a twirl, and the orchestra began to play.
  3. A little twist of some substance; a swirl.
    • 1969, The South African Sugar Journal, volume 53, page 51:
      Place the cream in a piping bag with a fairly large star pipe attached, fill each tartlet with a twirl of cream and top with a strawberry.
  4. (slang) A prison guard.
    Synonym: screw
    • 1958, Frank Norman, Bang to rights: an account of prison life, page 67:
      Which was in the main childishness and pettiness, the reason for this was that most of the twirls and the governors had […]

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

twirl (third-person singular simple present twirls, present participle twirling, simple past and past participle twirled)

  1. (intransitive) To perform a twirl.
  2. (transitive) To rotate rapidly.
  3. (transitive) To twist round.
    • 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 85:
      He inflated his chest, twirled his moustache, and thumped the table with a revulsion to thunderous indignation.
  4. (baseball) To pitch.
    • 1949, Mark Raymond Murnane, Ground Swells: Of Sailors, Ships, and Shellac, page 302:
      When the batteries were announced, however, and Herb Pennock of the Boston Red Sox, probably the best pitcher in all baseballdom, was named to twirl for the invading team, we felt we had been tricked.

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ Etymology in Merriam Webster's Dictionary
  2. ^ “Germanic cognates”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎[1], 3 October 2008 (last accessed), archived from the original on 5 January 2021
  3. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013) Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎[2], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
  4. ^ “twirl”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
  5. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “twirl”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
  6. ^ James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Twirl”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC.
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