sb. and a. Sc. [f. TIRL sb.1, v.3]
A. sb. 1. (See quot.)
1882. Jamieson’s Dist., Tirlie, tirly, sb. applied to a waving or ornamental line in scroll-work or carving; also, to the ornament itself.
2. A turnstile.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., Tirlies, little circular stoppages in pathways which turn round.
B. adj. Full of twirls or whirls, as in Tirly-toy, Tirlie-whirlie, a whirled figure, ornament, or pattern; anything having this form; a whirligig; a musical twirl or turn of the voice: also attrib.
a. 1807. Skinner, Misc. Poet. (1809), 183. What can ye be that cou’d employ Your pen in sic a *tirly-toy?
17[?]. Dainty Davie, ii., in Herd, Coll. (1776), II. 215. It was in and through the window broads, And a’ the *tirlie wirlies o’d; The sweetest kiss that e’er I got.
1742. Forbes, Shop Bill, x., in Ajax, etc. (1755), 40. I hae to fit the little girl … Wi’ mony a bony tirly wirl about the queets [= ankles].
1816. Scott, Antiq., xxi. They hae contrived queer tirlie-wirlie holes, that gang out to the open air, and keep the stair as caller as a kail-blade.
1885. ‘J. Strathesk,’ More Bits, xiv. (ed. 2), 274. Matthew Riddell … sang with a great many ‘tirlywirlies’ and grace-notes the following curling song.
