whirligig
pronunciation
How to pronounce whirligig in British English:
UK [ˈwɜ:ligɪg]
How to pronounce whirligig in American English:
US [ˈwɜrligɪg]
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- Noun:
- a conical child's plaything tapering to a steel point on which it can be made to spin
- large mechanical apparatus with seats for children to ride on
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- Verb:
- whirl or spin like a whirligig
Word Origin
- whirligig (n.)
- mid-15c., a child's toy, from whirl (v.) + gig (see gig (n.1)). Meaning "anything in constant motion" is from 1580s; "fickle, flighty person" is from c. 1600; as a type of water beetle, from 1713.
Example
- 1. My diary of the time shows that , like most teenagers , I was an emotional whirligig .
- 2. Whirligig of managing mode of enterprises in twenty-one centuries .
- 3. A team of scientists from the university of michigan led by michael longo , while exploring the direction of rotation of 15 872 spiral galaxies , came to the conclusion that our universe may have been rotating around its axis as whirligig from its birth .