the sb. or vb.-stem in Combination: whirl-brain, a giddy-brained person (cf. G. wirbelgeist scatter-brain); † whirl-crowned a., giddy-brained; † whirl-fire, a poetic or rhetorical name for lightning (? as associated with violent storms or whirlwinds); † whirl-gate, a turnstile; whirl-hook, in Rope-making, each of the hooks of a ‘whirl’ (see WHIRL sb. 1 c); † whirl-jack = WHIRLIGIG 1 (c); † whirl-mint, ? = whorled water-mint; whirl-pillar, -spout, a rotating column of water or dust, a waterspout or dust-whirl; whirl-shaped a., whorled; † whirl-snail, † whirl-stone (see quots.); † whirl-whale, some kind of whale (cf. WHIRL-ABOUT 1, WHIRLPOOL1); whirl-wheel (trans. Fr. rouet volant), a kind of waterwheel (see quot.).
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., I. x. 179. He is a *whirl-brain that talks whatever comes uppermost.
1648. N. Ward, Petit. Eastern Assoc., 20. Many *whirl-crown’d, and bragg-braind Opinionists.
1605. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iii. Law, 1011. The smoaking storms, the *whirl-fire’s crackling clash.
c. 1620. Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 104. The whirle fire shall flash.
1550. Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camden), 44. The *whirle yate anont the college dore.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVI. 483/2. This second spinner attaches his own hemp to the *whirl hook.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xi. 57. That he [sc. Gargantua] might play … after the manner of the other little children…, they made him a faire weather *whirljack [1694 whirle-gig], of the wings of the windmill.
c. 1710. Petiver, Cat. Ray’s Eng. Herbal, Tab. xxxi. Water *Whirl-mint. Cross Whirl-mint.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 83. In some parts of the ocean the water-spout or *whirl-pillar is occasionally met with.
1761. Phil. Trans., LII. 359. Each series is of equal length, and placed in a wheel or *whirl-shaped form like the equisetum or horsetail plant.
1681. Grew, Musæum, I. VI. i. 132. The *Whirle-Snail. Turbocochlea.
1737. [S. Berington], G. di Lucca’s Mem., 100. We saw at a vast Distance, Ten Thousand little Whirlspouts of Sand.
1681. Grew, Musæum, III. I. i. 262. The Short *Whirle-Stone. Trochites.
1605. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iii. Law, 732. Another, swallowed in a *Whirl-Whale’s womb, Is laid a-live within a living Toomb.
1853. Glynn, Treat. Power Water, 37. An elaborate series of experiments and an excellent report on the useful effect of the ordinary horizontal water-wheel at present used in France. Those on which the experiments were made are at Toulouse…. These wheels are of two kinds: those situate on the rivers are called bucket-wheels (à cuve)…; those which are placed on the canal are called *whirl-wheels (rouets volants),… and are turned by the percussion of the water upon curved floats.
