"whirl" in the noun sense

1. whirl, commotion

confused movement

"he was caught up in a whirl of work"

"a commotion of people fought for the exits"

2. whirl, swirl, vortex, convolution

the shape of something rotating rapidly

3. crack, fling, go, pass, whirl, offer

a usually brief attempt

"he took a crack at it"

"I gave it a whirl"

4. spin, twirl, twist, twisting, whirl

the act of rotating rapidly

"he gave the crank a spin"

"it broke off after much twisting"

"whirl" in the verb sense

1. twirl, swirl, twiddle, whirl

turn in a twisting or spinning motion

"The leaves swirled in the autumn wind"

2. whirl, birl, spin, twirl

cause to spin

"spin a coin"

3. eddy, purl, whirlpool, swirl, whirl

flow in a circular current, of liquids

4. spin, spin around, whirl, reel, gyrate

revolve quickly and repeatedly around one's own axis

"The dervishes whirl around and around without getting dizzy"

5. whirl, tumble, whirl around

fly around

"The clothes tumbled in the dryer"

"rising smoke whirled in the air"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

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