[f. prec. sb.]
1. intr. To move in an eddy or eddies: said properly of water and objects borne on water; also of air, vapor, etc., and transf. of birds on wing. Also fig.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. xvii. Eddying in almost viewless wave, The weeping willow twig to lave. Ibid. (1813), Trierm., III. vii. The unwonted sound, Eddying in echoes round and round.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple (1863), 158. The wind was high … sweeping in the rain in every direction as it eddyed to and fro.
1844. Mem. Babylonian P’cess, II. 91. Large hungry eagles … eddying far above into the regions of air.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xxviii. 285. A flat cake of ice eddied round near the floe we were upon.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 14. 97. The vapour would boil up suddenly, eddying wildly in the air.
2. trans. To whirl round in eddies. Also with in: to collect as into an eddy (rare).
1730. Thomson, Autumn, 322. The circling mountains eddy in From the bare wild the dissipated storm.
1858. Sat. Rev., VI. 113/1. How are we to tell that a comet … may not get eddyed (so to speak) by some great planet?
1878. Smiles, Robt. Dick, iv. 28. The water is churned and eddied about.
