Word.ws English Dictionary

pirl

pirl verb: to twist or wind, especially into a cord or braid etc.

Verb

pirl (third-person singular simple present pirls, present participle pirling, simple past and past participle pirled)

  1. (transitive) To twist or wind, especially into a cord or braid etc.
  2. (intransitive) To ripple or swirl, especially of water.
  3. (transitive) To cause to revolve or spin.

Noun

pirl (plural pirls)

  1. A ripple; a twist or curl.

Forms of pirl

Verb
third-person singular presentpirls
present participlepirling
past participlepirled
pastpirled
Noun
pluralpirls

Origin of pirl

The verb is from the 16th century. Origin uncertain; related to purl, pirn, prill (OED; more at pern, preen). The noun was derived from the verb in the 19th century.

Questions about pirl

What does pirl mean?
Pirl means to twist or wind, especially into a cord or braid etc.
What part of speech is pirl?
Pirl can be a verb or a noun.
What is the past tense of pirl?
The past tense of pirl is pirled.

Words near pirl in the dictionary

  1. Pirkkala
  2. Pirkl
  3. Pirkle
  4. Pirkls
  5. pirks
  6. pirl
  7. pirled
  8. pirlicue
  9. pirlicues
  10. pirlimycin
  11. pirlindole

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pirl (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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Cite this entry: “pirl.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pirl. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.