Now chiefly Sc. and north. dial. Forms: 6 tyrle, (turle), 7 tirle, 8– tirl. [Metathetic form of TRILL v.1 Cf. EFris. tirreln, tirlen to turn about quickly.]
I. 1. trans. To turn; to cause to rotate or revolve; to twirl, spin, twiddle; to tum over (and over); to move by rolling; = TRILL v.1 1. Also, to turn over rapidly (the leaves of a book).
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg., IV. 137. He muste guyde and tyrle the sayd nedle toward the panicle called cornea, tyl he touche the myddes of the apple of the eye and a lytle more.
1581. T. Watson, Centurie of Loue, lxii. Poems (Arb.), 98. Like Sisyphus I labour still To turle a rowling stoane against the hill.
1593. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., Wks. (Grosart), II. 150. That rowling stone of Innouation was neuer so turled and tumbled, as since those busie limmes began to rowse, and besturre them.
1638. H. Adamson, Muse’s Threnodie, v. (1774), 133. O how they bend their backs and fingers tirle!
1781. J. Hutton, Tour to Caves (ed. 2), Gloss. (E.D.S.), Tirl, v., to turn over, as leaves in a book.
1825. Brockett, N. C. Words, Tirl,… to turn over the leaves of a book quickly.
1844. Ayrshire Wreath, 155. We had a tough game at tirlin’ the trencher.
a. 1869. C. Spence, Poems (1898), 72. Soft wind sighing o’er the waste, Tirling the seared leaves.
1894. Northumbld. Gloss., s.v., ‘Tirled heels up,’ suddenly overturned or turned inside out.
† b. ? To cause to move; to circulate; in phrase tirl on the berry, ? pass round the wine. Cf. troll the bowl. Obs.
1519. Interl. Four Elem., B ij. Make rome, syrs, and let vs be mery, With huffa galand synge tyrll on the bery, And let the wyde worlde wynde.
c. 1537. Thersytes, in Four O. Plays (1848), 79. And we shall make merye And synge tyrle on the berye.
[a. 1553. Udall, Royster D., II. iii. (Arb.), 36. Heigh derie derie, Trill on the berie.]
2. intr. To turn over; to rotate in moving or falling; to roll, whirl.
1834. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., s.v. Cankert, Afore she tir’d owre [= died] my prayers war fervant.
1860. Blackie, Lyr. Poems, Jenny Geddes, vii. Stool after stool, like rattling hail, came tirling through the air.
1894. Northumbld. Gloss., s.v., Slates are said to ‘come tirlin doon’ when they are stripped off in a gale.
II. 3. intr. To make a rattling noise by turning or moving something rapidly to and fro or up and down. a. In the phr. to tirl at († upon) the pin, to make such a noise on some part of the gate or door, in order to gain admittance; also to tirl at the latch, at the sneck.
An old phrase of ballad poetry, which in the 19th c. was taken up and used by Scott, and others after him. Now generally identified by antiquaries with the use of the appendage called the risp and ring (RISP sb.3 2), formerly used for this purpose. (Cf. TINKLE v.1 3, Bob Norice, ix., ‘When he came to Lord Barnet’s castel He tinklet at the ring.’) But in this identification there are difficulties; a risp is not a ‘pin,’ nor has it any resemblance to a ‘pin,’ in any known sense of the word; the pin of a door was the latch or handle that was ‘lifted’ or ‘turned’ to open the door: see quots. under PIN sb.1 1 b; whereas the ‘risp’ was a fixed appendage that could neither be lifted nor turned, having no connection with the latch or door-handle. Hence it would seem that ‘to tirl at the pin’ was to make a noise by moving the latch up and down rapidly. It is possible that the ‘risp and ring’ was a later device, which came to be erroneously considered as the apparatus by which the ‘tirling at the pin’ was performed.
[c. 1500. Songs, Carols, etc. 111. Hogyn cam to bowers dore, He tryld vpon þe pyn for love, Hum, ha, trill go bell … Vp she rose & lett hym yn.]
15[?]. Ld. Beichan, in Ballads & Songs (Percy Soc.), 90. When she came to Lord Beichan’s gate, She tirled softly at the pin.
? 16[?]. in Ramsay’s Tea-t. Misc. (1762), 324. Ay he tirled at the pin, But answer made she none.
? 17[?]. Pr. Robt., ix., in Minstr. Scot. Bord. (1869), 381. O he has run to Darlinton, And tirled at the pin.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xl. There cam … first Pride, then Malice, then Revenge, then False Witness; and Murder tirl’d at the door-pin, if he camna ben.
1833. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, xii. (1859), 270. I hear my next door neighbour Madam Adversity tirling at the door pin.
1843. Nicholson, Hist. & Trad. Tales, Brownie o’ Blodnoch, 80. He tirled na lang, but he glided ben Wi’ a dreary dreary hum.
1879. Perthshire in Bygone Days, II. v. 300. My Nannie will smile in her sleep and awake When I tirl at the latch of my door.
1895. Crockett, Men of Moss-Hags, xiii. She tirled fretfully at the pin, the servant-maid opened, and we went within.
b. trans. in to tirl the sneck. Sc. rare.
(Cf. the name, Jonnie Tirlsneck, of the beadle in Scott’s St. Ronan’s Well.)
a. 1794. Pickering, ‘Keen blaws the Wind,’ in Burns’ Wks. (1856), IV. 9. The Gaber-lunzie tirls my sneck And shivering tells his waefu’ tale.
1892. J. Lumsden, Sheep-head & Trotters, 44. They … tirl the neebors’ snecks Like ouphes this nicht.
4. intr. Said of the sound of rain on a roof. rare.
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped, xxvi. When the wind gowls in the chimney and the rain tirls on the roof.
Hence Tirling-pin, the ‘pin’ or latch on which persons ‘tirled’ for admittance: see above, sense 3.
1875. Jas. Grant, One of the 600, i. The old Scotch tirling-pin—to be found now nowhere save in Fife—in lieu of bells and knockers.
1878. N. & Q., 5th Ser. IX. 319. I have seen and tirled at an original tirling-pin on the chief entrance door of the vicarage house at Ovingham-on-Tyne.
1894. Northumbld. Gloss., s.v. Tirl, Doors were formerly provided with a long, notched, iron handle on which a loose iron ring was hung. Instead of rousing the house with a knock, the caller tirled the ring up and down the notches of the ‘tirling pin,’ or handle. [But this was the risp and ring.]
