different between twirp vs twirl

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -??(r)p

Etymology 1

Onomatopoeia, like chirp.

Interjection

twirp

1. An imitation of the sound of a bird or a horn.
   • 1898, Metropolitan: Volume 7, page 520:

     The hounds are impatient. "Twirp, twirp, twirp!" goes the horn, and "Crack, crack, crack!" responds the whip. It is a chorus that stirs the blood of the veteran as well as that of the uninitiated fox-hunter.

   • 1996, Garrett Barbuto, Boys' Life, August, page 54:

     The first guy climbed up a tree and the farmer yelled, "Who is in my tree?" "Twirp, twirp," replied the first guy. […] "Meow," replied the second guy.

Etymology 2

Unknown, possibly derived from the onomatopoeia. See twerp.

Noun

twirp (plural twirps)

1. Alternative spelling of twerp
   • 1924, Munsey's Magazine: Volume 81, page 561:

     Don't be such a twirp. I'll be back in twenty minutes. Watch the clock! Time me! I'm going to take the bus.

English

Etymology

Of Scandinavian origin, akin to Norwegian Nynorsk tvirla, Old High German dweran (German zwirlen, quirlen) and Icelandic þyrill Or, an alteration of tirl (“to twist”), with influence from whirl.; all from Proto-Germanic *þweran? (“to stir”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?tw??(?)l/
• Rhymes: -??(r)l

Noun

twirl (plural twirls)

1. A movement where a person spins round elegantly; a pirouette.
2. Any rotating movement; a spin.

   The conductor gave his baton a twirl, and the orchestra began to play.

3. A little twist of some substance; a swirl.
   • 1969, The South African Sugar Journal (volume 53, page 51)

     Place the cream in a piping bag with a fairly large star pipe attached, fill each tartlet with a twirl of cream and top with a strawberry.

4. (slang) A prison guard.

   Synonym: screw

   • 1958, Frank Norman, Bang to rights: an account of prison life (page 67)

     Which was in the main childishness and pettiness, the reason for this was that most of the twirls and the governors had […]

Translations

Verb

twirl (third-person singular simple present twirls, present participle twirling, simple past and past participle twirled)

1. (intransitive) To perform a twirl.
2. (transitive) To rotate rapidly.
   • 1753, Robert Dodsley, Agriculture

     See ruddy maids, / Some taught with dexterous hand to twirl the wheel.
3. (transitive) To twist round.
4. (baseball) To pitch.
   • 1949, Mark Raymond Murnane, Ground Swells: Of Sailors, Ships, and Shellac (page 302)

     When the batteries were announced, however, and Herb Pennock of the Boston Red Sox, probably the best pitcher in all baseballdom, was named to twirl for the invading team, we felt we had been tricked.

Derived terms

• twirl one's moustache

Translations

References