birling

American  

[bur-ling] / ˈbɜr lɪŋ /

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.

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Etymology

Origin of birling

birl + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

birling

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

From The New Yorker ● Jan. 6, 2020

Oldtimers in Bay City remembered Percy as one of the lumberjacks who used to come into town in the '903 birling logs down the Saginaw Bay.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the once buzzing sawmill town of Gladstone, on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, lumberjacks last week played at their favorite sport, birling.

From Time Magazine Archive

In birling, two sure-footed log-rollers, standing on a peeled log floating in the water, try to spin it so as to roll each other off.

From Time Magazine Archive

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.

From David Balfour, Second Part Being Memoirs Of His Adventures At Home And Abroad, The Second Part: In Which Are Set Forth His Misfortunes Anent The Appin Murder; His Troubles With Lord Advocate Grant; Captivity On The Bass Rock; Journey Into Holland And France; And Singular Relations With James More Drummond Or Macgregor, A Son Of The Notorious Rob Roy, And His Daughter Catriona by Stevenson, Robert Louis