thirl
/θɜːl/US/θɝl/
thirl noun: a hole, an aperture, especially a nostril.
Noun (1)
thirl (plural thirls)
Verb (1)
thirl (third-person singular simple present thirls, present participle thirling, simple past and past participle thirled)
- To pierce; to perforate, penetrate, cut through.
- But yet his hardnesse savde him not against the piercing dart.
For hitting right betweene the scales that yeelded in that part
Whereas the joynts doe knit the backe, it thirled through the skin,
And pierced to his filthy mawe and greedy guts within.1567, Arthur Golding: Ovid's Metamorphoses Bk. 3 lines 78-81
- But yet his hardnesse savde him not against the piercing dart.
- To drill or bore; to cut through, as a partition between one working and another.
Verb (2)
thirl (third-person singular simple present thirls, present participle thirling, simple past and past participle thirled)
- To throw (a projectile).
- And many Authours doe in this manner wound the protection of their cause, by over-rashly running against that which they take hold-of, thirling [translating lanceant] such darts at their enemies, that might with much more advantage be cast at them., II.8
Verb (3)
thirl (third-person singular simple present thirls, present participle thirling, simple past and past participle thirled)
- To legally bind (a tenant) to the use of one's own property as an owner.
- To bind; to obligate to use or be associated with.
- Was everyone nowadays thirled to a formula?1951, Josephine Tey, The Daughter of Time, page 10
- And there are plenty of people — Labour politicians, for example — who want people to remain thirled to poverty, who do not want them to have any spirit or independence.2005, Alexander McCall Smith, 44 Scotland Street
Noun (2)
thirl (plural thirls)
- A thrall.
Forms of thirl
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | thirls |
| alternative form | thurl |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | thirls |
| present participle | thirling |
| past participle | thirled |
| past | thirled |
| alternative form | thrill |
Origin of thirl
From Middle English thirl, thiril, from Old English þyrel (“hole”), from Proto-West Germanic *þurhil, from Proto-Germanic *þurhilą (“hole, opening”), from Proto-Indo-European *tr̥h₂kʷelo- which is *tr̥h₂kʷe + *-lo, from *terh₂-. Related to thrill, drill. By surface analysis, through + -le.
From Middle English thirlen, thurlen, thorlen, from Old English þȳrlian (“to pierce”), from the noun (see above). Doublet of thrill.
Uncertain. Perhaps a blend of throw + hurl.
Words formed from thirl
- thirlable
Words that rhyme with thirl
Questions about thirl
- What does thirl mean?
- Thirl means a hole, an aperture, especially a nostril.
- What part of speech is thirl?
- Thirl can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce thirl?
- Thirl is pronounced /θɝl/ (US).
- What is the plural of thirl?
- The plural of thirl is thirls.
Words near thirl in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: thirl (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-thirl.wav.
Cite this entry: “thirl.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thirl. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.