ppl. a. [f. SWIRL v. + -ING2.] That swirls.

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  1.  Characterized by twists or convolutions; curling; twisted.

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1807.  Tannahill, Poet. Wks. (1846), 21. Auld, swirlon, slaethorn, camsheugh, crooked Wight.

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1831.  Sutherland Farm Rep., 83, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. Covered with short, white, flat-growing, swirling hair.

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1883.  G. H. Boughton, in Harper’s Mag., LXVI. April, 685/1. The further north one goes in Holland, the more one’s attention is called to the rapid increase of swirling ornament as a feature of domestic and civic architecture.

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  2.  Moving in eddies or whirlpools, or with a circular motion or course; whirling.

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1849.  Kingsley, Misc., N. Devon (1859), II. 246. A deep dark pool of swirling orange-brown.

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1853.  Ruskin, Stones Ven., II. iv. § 10. 63. The great mouldering wall … worn by the rain and swirling winds into yet unseemlier shape.

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1887.  T. A. Trollope, What I remember, II. ii. 32. The white gulls … started from their roosting-places … or returned to them from their swirling flights.

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1898.  H. Day, K. Spruce, xx. 242. Blinking the big flakes out of his eyes as he breasted the swirling storm.

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