Obs. [f. WHIRL- + PIT sb.1] = WHIRLPOOL2 1.

1

1570.  Foxe, A. & M. (ed. 2), I. 94/2. [He] ranne into a whurlepyt, where he was drowned.

2

1599.  B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., II. iii. (1600), G. The deepest whirlepit of the rau’nous Seas.

3

a. 1632.  T. Taylor, God’s Judgem., I. I. ix. (1642), 22. To escape the hands of his enemies, he ran into a whirlepit and his body was never found.

4

1724.  De Foe, Tour Gt. Brit., I. 92. As if the Water had at once ingulph’d itself in a Chasm of the Earth, or sunk in a Whirlpit.

5

  fig.  1560.  Becon, New Catech., iv. Wks. 1564, I. 420 b. To throwe vs headlong into the whourlepytte of euerlasting dampnation.

6

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 143. England recovered out of the whirlepit of calamities.

7