Obs. Forms: α. 6–7 whorle-, 7 whoorl-, 7–8 whorlbat. β. 7–8 whirl(e)bat. [Alteration of HURLBAT by substitution of WHIRL for the first syllable.]
1. Used in the 16th and 17th c. to render L. cæstus, which was defined as ‘a weapon with plummettes of leade, vsed in games for exercise’ (Cooper’s Thesaurus) and ‘a certain game … among the ancients, wherein they whirled leaden plummets at one another’ (Phillips, 1658); also in renderings of Gr. πύξ.
α. 1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v., Cæstus, Bellare cæstu, to play as it were at the whorle bat.
1574. Withals’ Dict., 51/2. Cæstus, an whorle batte, an instrument of leather couered with leade, to buffet one another.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XI. xxxvii. I. 331. All the sort of Rams he armed with crooked hornes,… as if they were gantlets or whorlebats [cæstus], given them by Nature to thumpe and jurre withall.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XXIII. 538. Your shoulders must not vndergo the churlish whoorlbals fall [οὐ γὰρ πὺξ γε μαχήσεαι].
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. xiii. § 6. He … compelled all strangers to fight with him, at whorlebattes.
1656. Cowley, Pindar. Odes, Praise of Pindar, Note 3. The Cestus, or Whorle-bats.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 30. The Whorlbat, and the rapid Race, shall be Reserv’d for Cæsar.
β. 1615. Chapman, Odyss., VIII. 285. At wrestling, buffets, whirlbat, speed of race [ἤ πὺξ ζὲ πάλη ἤ καὶ ποσίν]. Ibid., XI. 406. Pollux, that exceld, in whirlbat fight [πὺξ ἀγαθὸν Πολυδεύκεα].
1617. Minsheu, Ductor, 371. A Plummet, or whirle-bat, that vaulters, leapers, and dauncers vse.
1650. Horn & Robotham, Gate Lang. Unl., Foundation, C. § 3. Slain by thee with the whiribat [a te cestu cæsum].
1685. Cotton, trans. Montaigne, I. xxii. (1711), I. 130. Fencers, inur’d to beating, when bang’d almost to Pulp with Clubs and Whirl-bats [trans. Cicero pugiles cæstibus contusi].
1700. Dryden, Fables, Pref. *D 2. He rejected them as Dares did the Whirl-bats of Eryx.
2. A club.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, VII. 267. Where him his iron whirl-bat [κορύνη] nought avail’d.
