birling

[bur-ling]

noun

Chiefly Northern U.S.

1. a game played by lumberjacks, in which each tries to balance longest on a floating log while rotating the log with the feet.

Word History and Origins

Origin of birling¹

birl + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

There was sea salt in the air, and sleepless seagulls were birling in the darkness overhead.

Read more on The New Yorker

Already he had mastered the rudiments of “birling,” and could run across floating logs, if not gracefully at least with slight chance of a ducking.

Read more on Project Gutenberg

About nine in the morning, in a burst of wintry sun between two squalls of hail, I had my first look of Holland—a line of windmills birling in the breeze.

Read more on Project Gutenberg

Why was the sympathy of the crowd with Jimmy Powers in the birling match?

Read more on Project Gutenberg

"That means," he said, "that some of their great men are birling at the wine within, and will little like to be disturbed."

Read more on Project Gutenberg