obs. or dial. var. of whirl- in comb., as † whirly-bat, † whirly-pool, whirly-wind = WHIRLBAT, -POOL, -WIND (cf. whirligig and whirlgig); also whirly-go-round (whirligoround), a merry-go-round; † whirly-hole (see quot.); † whirly-rock, a spiral or turbinate fossil shell.
1725. Bailey, Erasm. Colloq. (1733), 42. The fighting with *Whirly-bats.
1865. Meredith, Rhoda Fleming, xliii. He was a faithful servant, till one day he got up on a regular *whirly-go-round, and ever since … such a little boy! Ibid. (1871), Harry Richmond, xlvi. Like one who has been gazing on the whirligoround, he saw the whole of women running or … waiting to run the giddy ring to perdition.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 172. At Kinfare Towne,… there goes another hole into the rock a great way, call’d *whirleyhole, from the Eddy of water the River makes at the mouth of it.
1727. Bailey (Vol. II.), *Whirly-pool.
1892. Meredith, Ode, To Comic Spirit, 87. These … Would keep our life the whirly pool Of turbid stuff.
1904. Edith Rickert, Reaper, xix. 204. There ’s often whirly-pools in the sea to spare, when the top of it looks as still as the land.
1681. Grew, Musæum, III. I. i. 265. A piece of *Whirly-Rock. Turbinites Saxum.
14[?]. Trevisa’s Barth. De P. R., XI. iv. (Bodl. MS.). *Whirly winde and a raynye cloude.
