▪ I. † whurl, v. Obs.
Also 5–6 whorle, 6 whyrle, 7 wherl.
[Imitative.]
intr. To make a roaring or rumbling noise; to purr, as a cat; to snarl or growl, as a dog. (Cf. wharl v., whirr v. 3, 3 b.) Hence † whurling vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also † whurl n. = wharl n.
| 1495 Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. xi. ii. (W. de W.), In y⊇ eeres wynde makith whystlyng and whorlinge [Bodl. MS. trongelinge] and ryngynge. 1530 Palsgr. 781/2 This wynde whorleth so I can nat here. 1553 Brende Q. Curtius v. 81 b, Y⊇ vse of the eares could not serue for one to receiue counsel..at an other, the wynd whyrlid so amonges the leaues. 1555 Eden Decades (Arb.) 112 The sea raged and rored..with a horrible whurlinge. 1607 Tourneur Rev. Trag. iv. ii. G 3, He whurles and rotles in the throate. 1608 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 105 How [the cat] whurleth with her voyce. 1611 Cotgr., Gronder, to whurle, whurre, yarre, like a dog that is angrie. 1625 in Foster Engl. Factories Ind. (1909) III. 51 The flying shoot..macking such a wherling noyse in the ayere. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XIII. 112/1 The commonalty are..distinguished by a kind of shibboleth or whurle, being a particular way of pronouncing the letter R, as if they hawked it up from the wind-pipe, like the cawing of rooks. |
▪ II. whurl(e, whurr, whurra, whurry
see whirl, whirr, hurrah, whirry.