v. Obs. Also 5–6 whorle, 6 whyrle, 7 wherl. [Imitative.] intr. To make a roaring or rumbling noise; to purr, as a cat; to snarl or growl, as a dog. (Cf. WHARL v., WHIRR v. 3, 3 b.) Hence † Whurling vbl. sb. and ppl. a.; also † Whurl sb. = WHARL sb.
1495. Trevisa’s Barth. De P. R., XI. ii. (W. de W.). In ye eeres wynde makith whystlyng and whorlinge [Bodl. MS. trongelinge] and ryngynge.
1530. Palsgr., 781/2. This wynde whorleth so I can nat here.
1553. Brende, Q. Curtius, v. 81 b. Ye vse of the eares could not serue for one to receiue counsel … at an other, the wynd whyrlid so amonges the leaues.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 112. The sea raged and rored … with a horrible whurlinge.
1607. Tourneur, Rev. Trag., IV. ii. G 3. He whurles and rotles in the throate.
1608. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 105. How [the cat] whurleth with her voyce.
1611. Cotgr., Gronder, to whurle, whurre, yarre, like a dog that is angrie.
1625. in Foster, Eng. Factories Ind. (1909), III. 51. The flying shoot tearing each other[s] sayles and rigging macking such a wherling noyse in the ayere.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XIII. 112/1. The commonalty are … distinguished by a kind of shibboleth or whurle, being a particular way of pronouncing the letter R, as if they hawked it up from the wind pipe, like the cawing of rooks.
