Deasil

//ˈdjɛʃəl// adv, noun

adv, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A motion towards the right, in the direction of the hands of a clock or of the apparent motion of the sun (in the northern hemisphere); a turning in this direction. uncountable

    "It consists, as is well known, in the person who makes the deasil walking three times round the person who is the object of the ceremony, taking care to move according to the course of the sun."

Adverb
  1. 1
    Clockwise, sunwise. not-comparable

    "In Strathfillan, Perthshire, people are cured of insanity by being made to go three times deasil round a certain pool and then being plunged headlong into it."

Synonyms

All synonyms
clockwisesunwisesunwise

Example

More examples

"In Strathfillan, Perthshire, people are cured of insanity by being made to go three times deasil round a certain pool and then being plunged headlong into it."

Etymology

From 1771, from Scottish Gaelic deiseil, deiseal (“southward, sunward; clockwise”) (adjective and adverb), from Old Irish dessel (“sunwise”), from dess (“right, south”) and sel (“turn”).

Related phrases

make the deasil

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.