Forms: α. 5 wharwyl, 5–9 wharle, 8–9 wharl. β. 5 whorwhil, (whorlwyl), qworle, 5–9 whorle, 6 whorlle, whorelle, Sc. quhorle, 8– whorl. [late ME. wharwyl, whorwhil, app. variants of WHIRL (early forms disyllabic, e.g., wherwille, qwherel) influenced by WHARVE sb.; but with the β-forms cf. early mod.Du. worvel, var. of wervel (Kilian).]
1. A small fly-wheel fixed on the spindle of a spinning-wheel to maintain or regulate the speed; a small pulley by which the spindle is driven in a spinning-machine. Also locally applied to small wheels or pulleys for other purposes.
α. c. 1460. Promp. Parv., 526/2. (Winch. MS.). Wharwyl of a spyndyl, vertebrunt.
1483. Cath. Angl., 417/1. A Wharle, giraculum, neopellum, vertibulum.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 628/2. Take out thy spindle & bryng me hither the wharle.
1566. in Peacock, Engl. Ch. Furnit. (1866), 170. One crwet defaced whearof was made wharles for spindels.
1589. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 55. Spindles and wharles ijd.
1828. Craven Gloss., Wharle.
1884. W. S. B. McLaren, Spinning (ed. 2), 239. [They] drive this spindle by the friction of a very heavy collar on it against a large leather washer, which rests on the wharl.
β. c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 526/1. Whorlwyl, of a spyndyl (K. whorwhil, P. whorle), vertebrum.
1483. Cath. Angl., 298. A Qworle of A roke.
1610. R. Vaughan, Water-Wks., O 4 b. The Stanke-royall (running on a whorle, his sluce being taken vp) is receiued by a Bastard-sluce.
1773. Emerson, Princ. Mech. (ed. 3), 189. Let EG be a spinning wheel,… whilst the rim makes 1 revolution, the twill makes 9, and the whorle and feathers 6.
1808. Jamieson, Whorle, a very small wheel, as that in a child’s cart.
1865. Lubbock, Preh. Times, v. 133. Spindle whorls of rude earthenware were abundant in some of the Lake-villages even of the Stone age.
1886. J. Barrowman, Sc. Mining Terms, 73. Whorls, pithead pulleys.
2. Bot. A set of members, as leaves, flowers, or parts of the flower, springing from the stem or axis at the same level and encircling it; a verticil. Also in Zool. a set of parts or structures, as scales or tentacles, similarly arranged.
[1551. Turner, Herbal, I. G vj. The stalke is foure square,… where about doth grow in equal order,… certayne knoppes, lyke whorlles.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, II. lxv. 232. The floures [of Pennyroyal] growe … about the stemmes like whorles or garlandes.]
1688. Holme, Armoury, II. 98/2. Rosemary, hath Wharles or small slender leaves set at distances about the stalk. Ibid., 106/1. Flowers set together in a Whorle or Coronett.
1713. Petiver, in Phil. Trans., XXVIII. 43. Its Spikes of Flowers are thick set in striated hairy whorls.
1837. Penny Cycl., VII. 215/1. An orange … consists of one whorl of carpels, which are consolidated into a round fruit.
1860. Sala, Lady Chesterf., iv. 64. A flattened head,… a forked tongue, a body of scaly whorls.
1861. Bentley, Man. Bot., 358. A flower is said to be complete, when the four whorls,—calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistil are present.
1872. H. A. Nicholson, Palæont., 75. The stem terminates in a single polypite, the mouth of which is surrounded by a single whorl of slender processes or ‘tentacles.’
3. Conch., and Anat. Each of the turns, coils, or convolutions of a spiral shell, or of any spiral structure.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 52. Shell conoid, with the whorls rounded or convex.
1855. Tennyson, Maud, II. ii. 6. See what a lovely shell, Small and pure as a pearl,… With delicate spire and whorl.
1890. Billings, Med. Dict., Whorl of heart, vortex of heart. [Ibid., Vortex of heart, the close spiral arrangement of fibres which occurs at the apex.]
4. gen. A convolution, coil, curl, ‘wreath’ (esp. of something whirling, or suggesting a whirling movement).
1592. R. D., Hypnerotomachia, 51. The head of a Storke, with her beake against the open mouth of a Monster, lying with his face vpwarde, and certaine Whorelles or Beades rysing vp betwixt his mouth and her beake.
1851. Nichol, Archit. Heav. (ed. 9), 99. Intervals between successive whorls of the starry stream!
1863. Baring-Gould, Iceland, xii. 210. Vast clouds of steam … roll in heavy whorls before the wind.
5. Comb., as whorl-flowered, -leaved, -shaped adjs.; whorl-flower, a plant of the genus Morina (N. O. Dipsacaceæ), having the flowers in dense whorls; whorl-grass, a grass of the genus Catabrosa.
1822. Hortus Anglicus, II. 204. M[alva] Verticillata. Whorl-flowered Mallow. Ibid., 423. C[oreopsis] Verticillata. Whorl-leaved Coreopsis.
1850. Daubeny, Atom. The., xii. (ed. 2), 423. The parts of the pistils are disposed in a whorl-shaped manner around an … axis.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl. (1900), IV. 69. Whorl-grass (Catabrosa). Water Whorl Grass (C. aquatica). Panicle with half whorls of spreading branches.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., 220. Morina longifolia, Long-leaved Whorl-flower.—persica, Persian Whorl-flower.
Hence Whorl v. trans. (a) to draw up by means of a ‘whorl’ or pulley (local); (b) to arrange in whorls or convolutions.
1886. J. Barrowman, Sc. Mining Terms, 73. The cage is said to be whorled when it is drawn up to or over the pulleys.
1904. Daily Chron., 6 Aug., 4/5. The stars, braided and whorled in patterns too intricate for our eyes.
