Verb

(en verb)

(ambitransitive) To twist or whirl, as an eddy.

I swirled my brush around in the paint.

* Charles Kingsley

The river swirled along.

* {{quote-news

, year=2012 , date=May 13 , author=Alistair Magowan , title=Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=The contest was a lot more even in the second half, as the wind swirled around the Stadium of Light, but it took Craig Gardner's superb block to prevent Young getting on the scoresheet.}}

To be arranged in a twist, spiral or whorl.

(figuratively) to circulate

* 2013 May 23, , " British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party," New York Times (retrieved 29 May 2013):

Mr. Cameron had a respite Thursday from the negative chatter swirling around him when he appeared outside 10 Downing Street to denounce the murder a day before of a British soldier on a London street.

Verb

(ergative) To rotate, revolve, gyrate (usually quickly); to partially or completely rotate to face another direction.

I spun myself around a few times.

Spin the ball on the floor.

The Earth spins with a period of one day.

She spun around and gave him a big smile.

* Longfellow

Round about him spun the landscape, / Sky and forest reeled together.

To make yarn by twisting and winding fibers together.

They spin the cotton into thread.

* Prior

They neither know to spin , nor care to toil.

To present, describe, or interpret, or to introduce a bias or slant so as to give something a favorable or advantageous appearance.

* {{quote-news, year=2006, date=February 9, title=The Politics of Science, work=The Washington Post citation

, passage=In every administration there will be spokesmen and public affairs officers who try to spin' the news to make the president look good. But this administration is trying to ' spin scientific data and muzzle scientists toward that end.}}

(cricket, of a bowler) To make the ball move sideways when it bounces on the pitch.

(cricket, of a ball) To move sideways when bouncing.

(cooking) To form into thin strips or ribbons, as with sugar

To form (a web, a cocoon, silk, etc.) from threads produced by the extrusion of a viscid, transparent liquid, which hardens on coming into contact with the air; said of the spider, the silkworm, etc.

To shape, as malleable sheet metal, into a hollow form, by bending or buckling it by pressing against it with a smooth hand tool or roller while the metal revolves, as in a lathe.

To move swiftly.

to spin along the road in a carriage, on a bicycle, etc.

To stream or issue in a thread or a small current or jet.

Blood spins from a vein.

(Shakespeare)

To twist (hay) into ropes for convenient carriage on an expedition.

(computing, programming, intransitive) To wait in a loop until some condition becomes true.