A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1986 (DOST Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1520-1595, 1647-1662
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Quhirl(l)-wind(e, n. Also: quhirle-, whirl(e-, wirlle-; quheirll- and -wynd, -vind. [ME and e.m.E. whirlwynd (Rolle), qwyrlewynde (a1400), wherle-winde (1596), cf. ON hvirfilvindr, also Quhirl(l n. b, v. 1.] A whirlwind.Also fig. and transf.(1) c1520-c1535 Nisbet 2 Peter ii 17.
Thir ar … mystis drevin with quhirlwindis a1568 Bannatyne MS 14b/42.
So lat Thy tempest chace thame And Thy quhirlewind with terror so deface thame a1578 Pitsc. I 259/7.
This man … wanischit away as he had bene … ane quhipe of the whirle wind 1579 Despauter (1579) 42.
Turbo, turbinis, vertigo ventorum omnia turbans, ane quhirlwynd 1587 Carmichael Etym. 16.
Turbo, quhirlwind or top 1588 Criminal Trials I ii 164.
And quhene we heir the quhirll-wind blaw in the sey, thay wilbe commounelie with itt 1590 Lett. Jas. VI to Bruce 282.
In deadest calmes … perellous puftes and quhirlwindes will aryse 1595 Duncan App. Etym. (see Quhirll-pole n.). 1662 Justiciary Ct. Rec. I 25.]
[She … raised a whirlwind and thereby had carried away Robert Lauder's house(2) fig. and transf. c1590 J. Stewart 240 §162.
Dame Auarice … Obteind the pest, … The ewill quheirll vind did vousting hence conwoy 1647 Durh. Univ. J. XXXIV 64.
She was Johne Giffanes wyfes death … by putting the wirlle wind in her hasse, that made her rattell till death
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"Quhirl-wind n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 10 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/quhirll_winde>
