Obs. [f. WHIRL- + PIT sb.1] = WHIRLPOOL2 1.
1570. Foxe, A. & M. (ed. 2), I. 94/2. [He] ranne into a whurlepyt, where he was drowned.
1599. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., II. iii. (1600), G. The deepest whirlepit of the raunous Seas.
a. 1632. T. Taylor, Gods Judgem., I. I. ix. (1642), 22. To escape the hands of his enemies, he ran into a whirlepit and his body was never found.
1724. De Foe, Tour Gt. Brit., I. 92. As if the Water had at once ingulphd itself in a Chasm of the Earth, or sunk in a Whirlpit.
fig. 1560. Becon, New Catech., iv. Wks. 1564, I. 420 b. To throwe vs headlong into the whourlepytte of euerlasting dampnation.
1610. Holland, Camdens Brit., I. 143. England recovered out of the whirlepit of calamities.