Other forms: whirling, whirled, whirls
To whirl is to move round very fast. Whirl around, the leaves whirled, a whirl of dust.
It suggests spinning fast enough to blur, which is why it suits leaves, dancers and dust. As a noun, a whirl is a rapid confusing succession of things: a whirl of activity, her head was in a whirl. Give it a whirl means to try it, which is the commonest use of the word by some distance. Note whirlwind, whirlpool; and a whirlwind romance, which is fast rather than destructive.
1verbwhirlTo move round very fast.
“The dancers whirled around the floor in their bright skirts.”
2nounrapidA rapid confusing succession of things.
“The week before the wedding was a whirl of parties, fittings and phone calls.”
whirl is a fast turning.
Middle English whirlen comes from a Germanic root meaning to turn, related to Old English hweorfan. Wharf, from the same turning, was originally a place where a bank turned.
Old English
*hwyrflian
Middle English
whirlen
English, today
whirl
Built from
From Middle English whirlen, contracted from earlier whirvelen, whervelen, possibly from Old English hwyrflian, hweorflian (attested in hwirflung, hwerflung (“change, vicissitude”)), frequentative form of Old English hweorfan (“to turn”), itself from Proto-West Germanic hwerban, from Proto-Germanic hwerbaną (“to turn”); or perhaps from Old Norse hvirfla (“to go round, spin”). Cognate with Dutch wervelen (“to whirl, swirl”), German wirbeln (“to whirl, swirl”), Danish hvirvle (“to whirl”), Swedish virvla (older spelling hvirfla), Albanian vorbull (“a whirl”). Related to whirr and wharve.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA