Word.ws English Dictionary

give something a whirl

give something a whirl verb: to try, test or attempt.

Verb

give something a whirl (third-person singular simple present gives something a whirl, present participle giving something a whirl, simple past gave something a whirl, past participle given something a whirl)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To try, test or attempt.
    • If you've never tried a recumbent bicycle before, you're welcome to give it a whirl.
    • I don't know how to begin, but I'll give it a whirl, anyway.
    Synonyms:
    take for a spin

Synonyms of give something a whirl

Forms of give something a whirl

third-person singular presentgives something a whirl
present participlegiving something a whirl
pastgave something a whirl
past participlegiven something a whirl

Questions about give something a whirl

What does give something a whirl mean?
Give something a whirl means to try, test or attempt.
What part of speech is give something a whirl?
Give something a whirl is a verb.
What is the past tense of give something a whirl?
The past tense of give something a whirl is gave something a whirl.

Words near give something a whirl in the dictionary

  1. give something a go
  2. give something a lash
  3. give something a miss
  4. give something a shot
  5. give something a try
  6. give something a whirl
  7. give something up as a bad job
  8. give stick
  9. give suck
  10. give the ax
  11. give the axe

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: give something a whirl (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-give something a whirl.ogg.

Cite this entry: “give something a whirl.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/give_something_a_whirl. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.