From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishwhorlwhorl /wɜːl $ wɔːrl/ noun [countable] 1 CFBENDa pattern made of a line that curls out in circles that get bigger and bigger2 technicalHBP a circular pattern of leaves or flowers on a stem
Examples from the Corpus
whorl• Roz felt the hot tightness within her curling into a whorl of anger.• He sat and stared at the desk in front of him, the creamy whorls in the wood, the tanned grain.• If you have many whorls, few loops, patterned palms the chances are you will develop duodenal ulcers.• The Cucuteni graves contained vases, beads, spindle whorls, and three Goddess figurines in each one.• Other species have squat whorls, the whole ammonoid being so tightly rolled up as to be almost spherical.• In the whorls of the inflorescence a few juvenile plantlets develop which root readily.• The whorls thus formed are smaller than the submerged form.Origin whorl (1400-1500) Probably from whirl 