swirled; swirling; swirls
1
a
: to move with an eddying or whirling motion
swirling water
b
: to pass in whirling confusion
2
: to have a twist or convolution
: to cause to swirl
swirled her drink
Examples of swirl in a Sentence
Verb
The water swirled around the drain.
kept swirling her lemonade until the ice had melted and it was completely watered down
Noun
A swirl of smoke rose from the chimney.
He painted swirls of color on the canvas.
ice cream with chocolate swirls
Recent Examples on the Web
David Furones, Sun Sentinel, 14 May 2026
The dark matter By looking at how the emission lines in the spectrum were broadened by the Doppler effect, Nakajima and his colleagues measured that the gas is swirling around inside the galaxy at roughly 58 kilometers per second, a rather typical value for dwarf galaxies.
—Jacek Krywko, ArsTechnica, 13 May 2026
Brendan Quinn, New York Times, 17 May 2026
Unique ice cream flavors include Baklava (honey ice cream with phyllo dough, almond paste and crushed almonds) for Algeria and Sachertote (chocolate ice cream with chocolate sponge cake and an apricot swirl) for Austria.
—Noelle Alviz-Gransee
may 15, Kansas City Star, 15 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for swirl
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Verb
When the Dolphins traded wide receiver Jaylen Waddle to the Denver Broncos in March, questions began to swirl over whether Achane would be next to get sent away for draft capital in Miami’s rebuild.
—David Furones, Sun Sentinel, 14 May 2026
The dark matter By looking at how the emission lines in the spectrum were broadened by the Doppler effect, Nakajima and his colleagues measured that the gas is swirling around inside the galaxy at roughly 58 kilometers per second, a rather typical value for dwarf galaxies.
—Jacek Krywko, ArsTechnica, 13 May 2026
Noun
Look, McIlroy might go out and shoot 63 on Sunday, turning the 2026 summer into a swirl of Grand Slam talk.
—Brendan Quinn, New York Times, 17 May 2026
Unique ice cream flavors include Baklava (honey ice cream with phyllo dough, almond paste and crushed almonds) for Algeria and Sachertote (chocolate ice cream with chocolate sponge cake and an apricot swirl) for Austria.
—Noelle Alviz-Gransee
may 15, Kansas City Star, 15 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for swirl
Cite this Entry
“Swirl.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/swirl. Accessed 20 May. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
swirl
1 of 2 noun1
: a whirling mass or motion : eddy
2
: whirling confusion
lost in the swirl of events
3
: a twisting shape, mark, or pattern
swirl
2 of 2 verb1
: to move with or pass in a swirl
2
: to be marked with or arranged in swirls
3
: to cause to swirl
swirlingly
adverb
ˈswər-liŋ-lē
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