whirligig

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: whirl=i=gig

CIDE DICTIONARY

whirligig, n. [Whirl + gig.].

•  A child's toy, spun or whirled around like a wheel upon an axis, or like a top.  Johnson.  [1913 Webster]
•  Anything which whirls around, or in which persons or things are whirled about, as a frame with seats or wooden horses.  [1913 Webster]

  "With a whirligig of jubilant mosquitoes spinning about each head."  [1913 Webster]
•  A mediæval instrument for punishing petty offenders, being a kind of wooden cage turning on a pivot, in which the offender was whirled round with great velocity.  [1913 Webster]
•  Any one of numerous species of beetles belonging to Gyrinus and allied genera. The body is firm, oval or boatlike in form, and usually dark colored with a bronzelike luster. These beetles live mostly on the surface of water, and move about with great celerity in a gyrating, or circular, manner, but they are also able to dive and swim rapidly. The larva is aquatic. Called also weaver, whirlwig, and whirlwig beetle.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

whirligig, n.
1 a spinning or whirling toy.
2 a merry-go-round.
3 a revolving motion.
4 anything regarded as hectic or constantly changing (the whirligig of time).
5 any freshwater beetle of the family Gyrinidae that circles about on the surface.

Etymology

ME f. WHIRL + obs. gig whipping-top

THESAURUS

whirligig

April showers, Ferris wheel, Proteus, carousel, chameleon, chute-the-chutes, chutes, cloud shapes, disk, flying horses, gyrate, gyre, kaleidoscope, mercury, merry-go-round, moon, pirouette, purl, quicksilver, roller, roller coaster, rolling stone, rotator, rotor, roundabout, rundle, seesaw, shifting sands, swing, teeter-totter, the weather, top, twirl, water, weather vane, weathercock, wheel, wheel of fortune, whip, whirl, whirlabout, whirler

ROGET THESAURUS

whirligig

Rotation

N rotation, revolution, spinning, gyration, turning about an axis, turning aound an axis, circulation, roll, circumrotation, circumvolution, circumgyration, volutation, circination, turbination, pirouette, convolution, verticity, whir, whirl, eddy, vortex, whirlpool, gurge, countercurrent, Maelstrom, Charybdis, Ixion, cyclone, tornado, whirlwind, dust devil, spin-out, axis, axis of rotation, swivel, pivot, pivot point, axle, spindle, pin, hinge, pole, arbor, bobbin, mandrel, axle shaft, gymbal, hub, hub of rotation, helix, helical motion, angular momentum, angular velocity, revolutions per minute, RPM, centrifugal force, surge, vertigo, dizzy round, coriolus force, carousel, merry-go-round, Ferris wheel, top, dreidel, teetotum, gyroscope, turntable, lazy suzan, screw, whirligig, rollingstone, water wheel, windmill, wheel, pulley wheel, roulette wheel, potter's wheel, pinwheel, gear, roller, flywheel, jack, caster, centrifuge, ultracentrifuge, bench centrifuge, refrigerated centrifuge, gas centrifuge, microfuge, drill, augur, oil rig, wagon wheel, wheel, tire, tyre, trochilics, whirling dervish, rotating, rotary, rotary, circumrotatory, trochilic, vertiginous, gyratory, vortical, vorticose, head over heels, round and round, like a horse in a mill.