different between pinwheel vs whirligig

English

Etymology

pin +? wheel

Noun

pinwheel (plural pinwheels)

1. An artificial flower with a stem, usually plastic, for children: the flower spins round in the wind, like a small paper windmill.
2. A firework which forms a kind of spinning wheel.
   • 1992, Joyce Carol Oates, Black Water, Penguin Books, paperback edition, page 125:

     The sun blazing late in the afternoon, this long hilarious day like a pinwheel inexhaustibly throwing off sparks.

3. A cogged (toothed) gear.
4. A pastry which resembles the artificial flowers above, with some filling or topping in the center.
5. Any food product consisting of layers (for example of pastry and sweet filling, or of bread and meat) rolled into a spiral, visually similar to a cinnamon roll.

Derived terms

• pinwheel mushroom (Marasmius rotula)

Translations

Verb

pinwheel (third-person singular simple present pinwheels, present participle pinwheeling, simple past and past participle pinwheeled)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To spin.

   The damaged fighter jet pinwheeled out of control, the g-forces pushing the pilot so hard he couldn't reach the ejection switch.

   • 2009, David Wren, The Repossession (page 226)

     Uncertainly, he stepped back, bumping into the short skirt of the seawall. He stumbled and pinwheeled his arms for balance.

   • The laws of physics and chemistry transform a meadow of fine powder into a wreckage of icy chunks. Saugstad’s pinwheeling body would freeze into whatever position it was in the moment the snow stopped.

English

Alternative forms

• whirlygig

Etymology

Middle English whirlegigge.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?w??.l?.???/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?w?.l?.???/

Noun

whirligig (plural whirligigs)

1. Anything that whirls or spins around, such as a toy top or a merry-go-round.
2. A device incorporating spinning, wind-driven propellers or pinwheels, used as whimsical outdoor decoration in a garden or on a porch.
3. A whirligig beetle.
4. A device for punishing prisoners, comprising a wooden cage that rapidly spins around.

Quotations

• 1600–1, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

  And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.

Translations

See also

• whirligig beetle
• yo-yo