a. [ad. L. vorticōs-us (It. vorticoso), f. vortic-, vortex VORTEX: see -OSE.]
1. Of motion: = VORTICAL a. 1.
1783. Phil. Trans., LXXIII. p. ii. At times … the motion was undulatory, and at others vorticose. Ibid., 194. The first shock … was lateral, and then vorticose, and exceedingly violent.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 418. The wave-like motions, and those which are called vorticose or whirling in a vortex.
1839. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xvi. 376. The displacement at first appears to be owing to a vorticose movement beneath each point thus affected.
1881. C. A. Young, Sun, 173. Only a very small percentage of the spots show any trace of vorticose motion.
2. Resembling a vortex.
1870. Matt. Williams, Fuel of Sun, § 326. 214. The tortured orb would be twisted bodily into a huge vorticose crater.
1893. Howlett, in Sir R. Ball, Story Sun, 147. They are illustrative of the development of two different and remarkable groups [of sun-spots]. The first is the elegant vorticose group.
Hence Vorticosely adv., in the manner of a vortex; vortically.
1882. Nature, XXV. 291. There is a strong inflow of the air along the surface of the ground all round vorticosely towards the base of the whirlwind.
1883. Encycl. Brit., XVI. 131/2. The strong air currents which … converge vorticosely round the base of the column [of the dust storm].
