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Whirl vs Stir - What's the difference?

whirl | stir |

As nouns the difference between whirl and stir

is that whirl is an act of whirling while stir is scorpion.

As a verb whirl

is (label) to rotate, revolve, spin or turn rapidly.

whirl

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • (label) To rotate, revolve, spin or turn rapidly.
  • * (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
    • He whirls his sword around without delay.
  • * 1900 , , (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
    • The house whirled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air. Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon.
  • (label) To have a sensation of spinning or reeling.
  • (label) To make something or someone whirl.
  • (label) To remove or carry quickly with, or as with, a revolving motion; to snatch.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
    • See, see the chariot, and those rushing wheels, / That whirled the prophet up at Chebar flood.
  • * (1809-1892)
    • The passionate heart of the poet is whirl'd into folly.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An act of whirling.
    • She gave the top a whirl and it spun across the floor.
  • Something that whirls.
  • A confused tumult.
  • A rapid series of events
    • My life is one social whirl .
  • Dizziness or giddiness.
  • A brief experiment or trial.
    • OK, let's give it a whirl .

    Derived terms

    * whirligig * whirlpool English terms with homophones

    stir

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) stiren, from (etyl) styrian, from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (stirr)
  • To change the place of in any manner; to move.
  • *(rfdate), (Sir William Temple)
  • *:My foot I had never yet in five days been able to stir .
  • (lb) To disturb the relative position of the particles of, as of a liquid, by passing something through it; to agitate.
  • :
  • *(rfdate), (William Shakespeare)
  • *:My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirred .
  • (lb) To agitate the content of (a container) by passing something through it.
  • :
  • (lb) To bring into debate; to agitate; to moot.
  • *(rfdate), (Francis Bacon)
  • *:Stir not questions of jurisdiction.
  • (lb) To incite to action; to arouse; to instigate; to prompt; to excite.
  • *(rfdate) (Chaucer)
  • *:To stir men to devotion.
  • *(rfdate), (William Shakespeare)
  • *:An Ate, stirring him to blood and strife.
  • *(rfdate), (John Dryden)
  • *:And for her sake some mutiny will stir .
  • *1922 , (Margery Williams), (The Velveteen Rabbit)
  • *:That night he was almost too happy to sleep, and so much love stirred in his little sawdust heart that it almost burst.
  • (lb) To move; to change one’s position.
  • *(rfdate) (Byron)
  • *:I had not power to stir or strive, But felt that I was still alive.
  • (lb) To be in motion; to be active or bustling; to exert or busy oneself.
  • *(rfdate) (Byron)
  • *:All are not fit with them to stir and toil.
  • *(rfdate) (Charles Merivale)
  • *:The friends of the unfortunate exile, far from resenting his unjust suspicions, were stirring anxiously in his behalf.
  • (lb) To become the object of notice; to be on foot.
  • *(rfdate), (Isaac Watts)
  • *:They fancy they have a right to talk freely upon everything that stirs or appears.
  • To rise, or be up and about, in the morning.
  • *
  • *:"Mid-Lent, and the Enemy grins," remarked Selwyn as he started for church with Nina and the children. Austin, knee-deep in a dozen Sunday supplements, refused to stir ; poor little Eileen was now convalescent from grippe, but still unsteady on her legs; her maid had taken the grippe, and now moaned all day: "Mon dieu! Mon dieu! Che fais mourir! "
    • Usage notes
    * In all transitive senses except the first, (term) is often followed by (up) with an intensive effect; as, (term); (term).
    Synonyms
    * (to move) incite; awaken; rouse; animate; stimulate; excite; provoke.
    Derived terms
    * stir-fry * stirrer * stir up * straw that stirs the drink

    Noun

  • The act or result of stirring; agitation; tumult; bustle; noise or various movements.
  • * (rfdate), .
    • Why all these words, this clamor, and this stir ?
  • * (rfdate), .
    • ''Consider, after so much stir about genus and species, how few words we have yet settled definitions of.
  • Public disturbance or commotion; tumultuous disorder; seditious uproar.
  • * (rfdate), .
    • Being advertised of some stirs raised by his unnatural sons in England.
  • Agitation of thoughts; conflicting passions.

    • Etymology 2

    (en)

    Noun

    (-)
  • (lb) Jail; prison.
  • :
  • *
  • *:The Bat—they called him the Bat.. He'd never been in stir , the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face. Most lone wolves had a moll at any rate—women were their ruin—but if the Bat had a moll, not even the grapevine telegraph could locate her.

    • Anagrams

    * * English ergative verbs ----