whirly
Americannoun
-
whirlies
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of whirly
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
By the 1970s, even the Queen was wearing looser-fitting evening gowns with drapey arms and "swirly whirly" patterns.
From BBC ● Dec. 26, 2025
The whirly appendages belong to helicopters tracking the monster smudge over Iron City, a small industrial town and home of the College-on-the-Hill.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
Personal whirly copters dart among glinting steel towers, everything looks like the Seattle Space Needle, and nothing is crummy or made out of wood.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
“And after that house went whirly off into the sky, dipped down agin and tuck Miss Winnie’s house—and her in it!”
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
![]()
“Early one mor-r-ning,” I sing, loud and clear, making the whirly shapes of the world go spangly and weird, but I keep on singing.
From "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness
![]()
Skateboarders performed soaring whirlies in front of a freshly painted Shepard Fairey mural of Angelou’s beaming face as food vendors shuffled by pushing carts stacked with fresh mangoes on ice.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2019
Since the Justices so frequently gave with one hand while taking away with the other, anyone intent on labeling the Burger Court has had to fight off a case of the whirlies.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
Travelling over the sea the whirlies displayed fresh capabilities.
From The Home of the Blizzard Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914 by Sir Douglas Mawson
Above the glacier ahead whirlies, out-lined in high revolving columns of snow, "stalked about" in their wayward courses.
From The Home of the Blizzard Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914 by Sir Douglas Mawson
The whirlies tracked about in a most irregular manner and woe betide any light object which came in their path.
From The Home of the Blizzard Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914 by Sir Douglas Mawson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.