swirl (swerl)

[ He. sat for several hours on a bench looking at the muddy current as it swirled by. J. Hawthorne, Dust, p. 337. And the straw in the yard swirling round and round. R. D. Black more , Lorna Doone, xli. Helvellyn, and " Swirl Edge," nea near Coniston. " J. D. Whitney, Names and Places, p. 138. tice was disapproved by the Swi federal and cantonal authorities. A small company of Swi guards is still headdre , a head-dre supposed to be imitated from the customary way of wearing the hair of the peasant women in some cantons of Switzerland: as usually understood, it consists of two swirly (swer'li), a. [Also swirlie; Having to hide behind a haystack to smoke a penny cigar, with constant anticipation of being caught and swished. E. Yates , Fifty Years of London Life, I. ii. 2. To flourish; brandish; make quick, cutting motions with; switch. And backward and forward he swished his long tail As a gentleman swishes his cane. Cole ridge, The Devil's Thoughts (ed. 1799). 3. To affect by swishing: as, to swish off the heads of flowers with a cane. II. in trans. To move, or make a movement, with a swash or flourish, or with a sound like the washing of small waves on the shore, or of Swift movement through the air, of which the word swish is imitative. .. swishing through the gra with The rustic who was. looked up. his scythe. O. W. Holmes, Elsie Venner, x. I lingered in the lane, where the ferns began to have a newer look, and on the bridge over the little river, bordered by yellow-ta eled willows and swishing with a pleasant murmur against its gra y banks. The Atlantic, LXIII. 718. swish (swish), n. [ The air was musical with the song of birds, the swish of the scythe. New York Tribune , Sept. 2, 1879. The swish and splash of the waves. 2. A swish-broom. Scribner's Mag., VIII. 275. swish (swish), adv. [An elliptical use of swish, n.] In a swishing manner, or with a swishing sound; with a swish. [Colloq.] Swish went the whip; the buggy gave a jerk and whirled quickly past her. Scribner's Mag., VIII. 565.