WHIRLPOOL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does whirlpool mean? 

• WHIRLPOOL (noun)
  The noun WHIRLPOOL has 1 sense:

1. a powerful circular current of water (usually the result of conflicting tides)

  Familiarity information: WHIRLPOOL used as a noun is very rare.

• WHIRLPOOL (verb)
  The verb WHIRLPOOL has 1 sense:

1. flow in a circular current, of liquids

  Familiarity information: WHIRLPOOL used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WHIRLPOOL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A powerful circular current of water (usually the result of conflicting tides)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

maelstrom; vortex; whirlpool

Hypernyms ("whirlpool" is a kind of...):

current; stream (a steady flow of a fluid (usually from natural causes))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "whirlpool"):

Charybdis ((Greek mythology) a ship-devouring whirlpool lying on the other side of a narrow strait from Scylla)

Derivation:

whirlpool (flow in a circular current, of liquids)

• WHIRLPOOL (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Flow in a circular current, of liquids

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

eddy; purl; swirl; whirl; whirlpool

Hypernyms (to "whirlpool" is one way to...):

course; feed; flow; run (move along, of liquids)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

whirlpool (a powerful circular current of water (usually the result of conflicting tides))

 Context examples 

We could hear a sound like the waves upon the beach, long before we came in sight of that mighty multitude, and then at last, on a sudden dip of the road, we saw it lying before us, a whirlpool of humanity with an open vortex in the centre.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

How they ever grew up alive in that whirlpool of boys was a mystery to their grandma and aunts, but they flourished like dandelions in spring, and their rough nurses loved and served them well.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Here, in the whirlpool of European races, the Ugric tribe bore down from Iceland the fighting spirit which Thor and Wodin gave them, which their Berserkers displayed to such fell intent on the seaboards of Europe, ay, and of Asia and Africa too, till the peoples thought that the were-wolves themselves had come.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)