† ˈwhirlpit Obs.
[f. whirl- + pit n.1]
= whirlpool2 1.
| 1570 Foxe A. & M. (ed. 2) I. 94/2 [He] ranne into a whurlepyt, where he was drowned. 1599 B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. ii. iii. (1600) G, The deepest whirlepit of the rau'nous Seas. a 1632 T. Taylor God's Judgem. i. i. ix. (1642) 22 To escape the hands of his enemies, he ran into a whirlepit and his body was never found. 1724 De Foe Tour Gt. Brit. I. 92 As if the Water had at once ingulph'd itself in a Chasm of the Earth, or sunk in a Whirlpit. |
| fig. 1560 Becon New Catech. iv. Wks. 1564 I. 420 b, To throwe vs headlong into the whourlepytte of euerlasting dampnation. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 143 England recovered out of the whirlepit of calamities. |