▪ I. tirl, n.1 Chiefly Sc.
(tɜːl, Sc. tɛrl)
Also 5–8 tirle, 6 tirrill, 7 tirrle, turle.
[app. related to tirl v.3]
1. A round or turn at doing anything; a slight experience or trial of something; a touch, taste.
| c 1660 J. Guthrie in Union Mag. Oct. (1902) 463 Many a man has touched the cross, and it has scalded him; and he has given it a tirl and letten it lie. 1697 Cleland Poems 32 She was tyred with his speeches; She would far rather had a tirrle Of an Aquavitae barrel. 1715 Ramsay Christ's Kirk Gr. ii. vii, The young swankies on the green Took round a merry tirle. 1721 ― Horace to Virg. 5 King æol, grant a tydie tirl. 1742 Forbes Shop Bill x. in Ajax, etc. (1755) 40, I hae..some for those that tak a tirle amo' the sheets. |
2. A revolving piece of mechanism like a turnstile; a wheel of some kind. dial.
| 1691 W. B. Hist. Roman Conclave ii. 7 In several parts of the Wall of the Conclave, there are seven Rote, or Holes with Turles in them, just as there are in Nunneries, wherein the Victuals are put in from without, and turned round to be Received within. 1793 Statist. Acc. Scot. V. 193–4 The tirl occupies the same situation under this mill, as the trundles in the inner part of an ordinary mill; and it performs the same office. The diameter of the tirl is always equal to that of the millstones. 1883 W. Yorks. Gloss., Tirl, the wheel of a [wheel] barrow. |
3. An act of twirling; a twirl, whirl. dial.
| 1790 D. Morison Poems 6 (E.D.D.) The temper pin she gi'es a tirl, An' spins but slow. |
† 4. ? A whirled or circular pattern. rare—1.
| a 1584 Montgomerie Cherrie & Slae 334 With dansing, and glansing, In tirlis [v.r. tirle] lik dornik champ. |
† 5. A name of some disease: editors suggest St. Vitus's dance. Obs. rare.
| a 1585 Montgomerie Flyting 321 The phtiseik, þe twithȝaik, þe tittis, and þe tirrillis [v.r. The tisicke, the toothaike, the tites and tirles]. |
6. Comb. † tirl-bed, a trundle- or truckle-bed on low wheels or castors.
| 1488 Coventry MSS. in 1st Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. 101/2, iii. staynding beddes iii. tirle beddes well bothomed. |
▪ II. tirl, n.2 Sc.
[f. tirl v.3 II.]
An act of tirling (see tirl v.3 3); loosely, a tap or tapping. Also as int.
| 1808 Jamieson, Tirl,..a sharp tap or stroke. 1818 Blackw. Mag. III. 531 The slight tirl on the lozen, or tap at the window. 1819 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 19 Whan, hark! upon the gowden door, Tirl! comes a rap. |
▪ III. tirl, n.3
Sc. var. thrill n.3, vibration, tremor.
| 1882 Jamieson, Tirl, Tirle, a vibration, the act of vibrating. 1894 Haliburton Furth in Field iv. 183 A good woman..with a pathetic ‘tirl’ in her tone. |
▪ IV. tirl, v.1 Sc.
Also 6 tyrle.
[Origin uncertain: app. not connected with any sense of trill; but cf. thrill v.1 6.]
† 1. intr. To pluck at; esp. to pluck at the strings of a harp, or the like, so as to cause them to sound. Obs.
| c 1470 Henryson Mor. Fab. vii. (Lion & Mouse) xiv, Sum [of the mice] tirlit at the campis of his [the lion's] beird, Sum sparit not to claw him on the face. 1567 Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) 93 Tak harpe in hand..Tyrle on the ten stringit Instrument. |
2. trans. To pluck (a tense string, etc.) so as to cause vibration.
| 1882 Jamieson s.v., (Clydesdale) He tirled the strings. 1894 R. Reid in Poets Dumfries. x. (1910) 305 That queer wild cry frae the gurly sky Can tirl my heart-strings still. |
▪ V. tirl, v.2 Sc. and north. dial.
[Apparently related to tirve v.1 and tirr v. in same senses; perh. orig. a freq. *tyrflian: cf. whirl from hwirfl-.]
1. trans. To roll or turn back, pull or strip off (a garment or the clothes from a person, his back, etc.; the bed-clothes from a bed; the thatch or roof from a house, stack, etc.).
| a 1500 Priests Peblis 993 Off his coate thay tirlit be the croun. 1810 Cromek's Rem. Nithsdale Song 33 The wind blaws loud and tirls our strae. 1819 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 211 Nae thing was prosperin' there and thrivin', But tirlin' roofs and rafter-rivin'. 1826 L. Proudlock Poet. Wks., Cuddie & Crawing Hen 43 Winds loud blew, wi' fury flew, And threat to tirl its riggin'. 1835 Hogg Tales & Sk. (1837) V. 275 He was tied to a tree, and his shirt tirled over his head. 1880 Antrim & Down Gloss. s.v. Tirl, thirl, The wun' thirled the thatch las' nicht. 1894 Northumbld. Gloss. s.v., To ‘tirl the bed-claes’, to strip off the bed-clothes. |
2. To uncover by rolling back the covering; to strip (a person) naked; to unroof (a building): often tirl naked, tirl bare.
| 1721 Ramsay Lucky Spence x, Suppose then they should tirle ye bare, And gar ye fike, E'en learn to thole. 1785 Burns Addr. to Deil iv, Whyles on the strong-wing'd tempest flyin, Tirlin the kirks. 1816 Scott Old Mort. xxiii, Our folk had tirled the dead dragoons as bare as bawbees. 1843 Nicholson Hist. & Trad. Tales 120 Wi' hideous yells she filled the air, And tirled Simon's cottage bare. |
b. To uncover (the peat in a moss, the stone in a quarry, etc.) by removing the surface soil, overlying earth, clay, etc.; to lay bare (anything) by removing its covering.
| 1815 Pennecuik's Wks. 71 note, After removing the surface soil with the roots of the heath, or ling, growing on it (called the tirling of the moss). 1816 Scott Antiq. xxiii, ‘If your honours are thinking of tirling the floor’, said old Edie, ‘..I would begin below that muckle stane’. Mod. Sc. About 1845 a new section of Denholm Hill Freestone Quarry was tirled. |
▪ VI. tirl, v.3 Now chiefly Sc. and north. dial.
Forms: 6 tyrle, (turle), 7 tirle, 8– tirl.
[Metathetic form of trill v.1 Cf. EFris. tirreln, tirlen to turn about quickly.]
I. 1. trans. To turn; to cause to rotate or revolve; to twirl, spin, twiddle; to turn over (and over); to move by rolling; = trill v.1 1. Also, to turn over rapidly (the leaves of a book).
| 1543 Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. iv. 137 He muste guyde and tyrle the sayd nedle toward the panicle called cornea, tyl he touche the myddes of the apple of the eye and a lytle more. 1582 T. Watson Centurie of Loue lxii. Poems (Arb.) 98 Like Sisyphus I labour still To turle a rowling stoane against the hill. 1593 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. Wks. (Grosart) II. 150 That rowling stone of Innouation was neuer so turled and tumbled, as since those busie limmes began to rowse, and besturre them. 1638 H. Adamson Muse's Threnodie v. (1774) 133 O how they bend their backs and fingers tirle! 1781 J. Hutton Tour to Caves (ed. 2) Gloss. (E.D.S.), Tirl, v., to turn over, as leaves in a book. 1825 Brockett N.C. Words, Tirl,..to turn over the leaves of a book quickly. 1844 Ayrshire Wreath 155 We had a tough game at tirlin' the trencher. a 1869 C. Spence Poems (1898) 72 Soft wind sighing o'er the waste, Tirling the seared leaves. 1894 Northumbld. Gloss. s.v., ‘Tirled heels up’, suddenly overturned or turned inside out. |
† b. ? To cause to move; to circulate; in phrase tirl on the berry, ? pass round the wine. Cf. troll the bowl. Obs.
| 1519 Interl. Four Elem. B ij, Make rome, syrs, and let vs be mery, With huffa galand synge tyrll on the bery, And let the wyde worlde wynde. c 1537 Thersytes in Four O. Plays (1848) 79 And we shall make merye And synge tyrle on the berye. [a 1553 Udall Royster D. ii. iii. (Arb.) 36 Heigh derie derie, Trill on the berie.] |
2. intr. To turn over; to rotate in moving or falling; to roll, whirl.
| 1824 Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl. s.v. Cankert, Afore she tirl'd owre [= died] my prayers war fervant. 1860 Blackie Lyr. Poems, Jenny Geddes vii, Stool after stool, like rattling hail, came tirling through the air. 1894 Northumbld. Gloss. s.v., Slates are said to ‘come tirlin doon’ when they are stripped off in a gale. |
II. 3. intr. To make a rattling noise by turning or moving something rapidly to and fro or up and down. a. In the phr. to tirl at († upon) the pin, to make such a noise on some part of the gate or door, in order to gain admittance; also to tirl at the latch, at the sneck.
An old phrase of ballad poetry, which in the 19th c. was taken up and used by Scott, and others after him. Now generally identified by antiquaries with the use of the appendage called the risp and ring (risp n.3 2), formerly used for this purpose. (Cf. tinkle v.1 3, Bob Norice ix, ‘When he came to Lord Barnet's castel He tinklet at the ring’.) But in this identification there are difficulties; a risp is not a ‘pin’, nor has it any resemblance to a ‘pin’, in any known sense of the word; the pin of a door was the latch or handle which was ‘lifted’ or ‘turned’ to open the door: see quots. under pin n.1 1 b; whereas the ‘risp’ was a fixed appendage which could neither be lifted nor turned, having no connexion with the latch or door-handle. Hence it would seem that ‘to tirl at the pin’ was to make a noise by moving the latch up and down rapidly. It is possible that the ‘risp and ring’ was a later device, which came to be erroneously considered as the apparatus by which the ‘tirling at the pin’ was performed.
| [c 1500 Songs, Carols, etc. 111 Hogyn cam to bowers dore, He tryld vpon þe pyn for love, Hum, ha, trill go bell..Vp she rose & lett hym yn.] 15.. Ld. Beichan in Ballads & Songs (Percy Soc.) 90 When she came to Lord Beichan's gate, She tirled softly at the pin. ? 16.. in Ramsay's Tea-t. Misc. (1762) 324 Ay he tirled at the pin, But answer made she none. ? 17.. Pr. Robt. ix. in Minstr. Scot. Bord. (1869) 381 O he has run to Darlinton, And tirled at the pin. 1816 Scott Antiq. xl, There cam..first Pride, then Malice, then Revenge, then False Witness; and Murder tirl'd at the door-pin, if he camna ben. 1833 M. Scott Tom Cringle xii. (1859) 270, I hear my next door neighbour Madam Adversity tirling at the door pin. 1843 Nicholson Hist. & Trad. T., Brownie o' Blodnoch 80 He tirled na lang, but he glided ben Wi' a dreary dreary hum. 1879 Perthshire in Bygone Days ii. v. 300 My Nannie will smile in her sleep and awake When I tirl at the latch of my door. 1895 Crockett Men of Moss-Hags xiii, She tirled fretfully at the pin, the servant-maid opened, and we went within. |
b. trans. in to tirl the sneck. Sc. rare.
[Cf. the name, Jonnie Tirlsneck, of the beadle in Scott's St. Ronan's Well.]
| a 1794 Pickering ‘Keen blaws the Wind’ in Burns' Wks. (1856) IV. 91 The Gaber-lunzie tirls my sneck And shivering tells his waefu' tale. 1892 J. Lumsden Sheep-head & Trotters 44 They..tirl the neebors' snecks Like ouphes this nicht. |
4. intr. Said of the sound of rain on a roof. rare.
| 1886 Stevenson Kidnapped xxvi, When the wind gowls in the chimney and the rain tirls on the roof. |
Hence ˈtirling-pin, the ‘pin’ or latch on which persons ‘tirled’ for admittance: see above, sense 3.
| 1875 J. Grant One of the 600 i, The old Scotch tirling-pin—to be found now nowhere save in Fife—in lieu of bells and knockers. 1878 N. & Q. 5th Ser. IX. 319, I have seen and tirled at an original tirling-pin on the chief entrance door of the vicarage house at Ovingham-on-Tyne. 1894 Northumbld. Gloss. s.v. Tirl, Doors were formerly provided with a long, notched, iron handle on which a loose iron ring was hung. Instead of rousing the house with a knock, the caller tirled the ring up and down the notches of the ‘tirling pin’, or handle. [But this was the risp and ring.] |
▪ VII. tirl(e, tyrl(e, v.4
Sc. Var. of thirl v.1, v.3, thrill v.1
| 1825–82 Jamieson, Tirl, Tirle,..to quiver, vibrate, thrill. a 1870 Thomson Musings (1881) 120 Tyrants will ne'er care a snuff for your word, Till ance they hear't tirl frae the point o' your sword. |