WHIRLWIND

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does whirlwind mean? 

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

1. a more or less vertical column of air whirling around itself as it moves over the surface of the Earth

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• WHIRLWIND (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A more or less vertical column of air whirling around itself as it moves over the surface of the Earth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

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

windstorm (a storm consisting of violent winds)

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

dust devil (a miniature whirlwind strong enough to whip dust and leaves and litter into the air)

 Context examples 

By the March 24 new moon and the days that follow, you may be able to take a whirlwind holiday with someone you love.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

And it is a whirlwind life, the life of the moment, with neither past nor future, and certainly without thought of any style but reportorial style, and that certainly is not literature.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Then he warmed up and enveloped Spitz in a whirlwind of rushes.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

God's direct agency was to be seen in the thunder and the rainbow, the whirlwind and the lightning.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The first appearance of bright green leaves heralds the start of spring, nudging insects, birds and other animals into a whirlwind of action.

(Urbanization delays spring plant growth in warm regions, National Science Foundation)

Sometimes I could cope with the sullen despair that overwhelmed me, but sometimes the whirlwind passions of my soul drove me to seek, by bodily exercise and by change of place, some relief from my intolerable sensations.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He encountered a feathered whirlwind.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

But the huntsman had heard all they said; and as soon as they were gone, he climbed to the top of the mountain, and when he had sat there a short time a cloud came rolling around him, and caught him in a whirlwind and bore him along for some time, till it settled in a garden, and he fell quite gently to the ground amongst the greens and cabbages.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

There was no garret at all, and no cellar—except a small hole dug in the ground, called a cyclone cellar, where the family could go in case one of those great whirlwinds arose, mighty enough to crush any building in its path.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Mrs. Reed was rather a stout woman; but, on hearing this strange and audacious declaration, she ran nimbly up the stair, swept me like a whirlwind into the nursery, and crushing me down on the edge of my crib, dared me in an emphatic voice to rise from that place, or utter one syllable during the remainder of the day.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)