Gyre
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A swirling vortex. literary, poetic
- 2 a round shape formed by a series of concentric circles (as formed by leaves or flower petals) wordnet
- 3 A circular or spiral motion; also, a circle described by a moving body; a revolution, a turn. literary, poetic
"Quick, and more quick he ſpins in giddy Gires, / Then falls, and in much Foam his Soul expires."
- 4 Synonym of gyrus (“a fold or ridge on the cerebral cortex of the brain”). archaic
- 5 An ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner, especially one that is large-scale and observed in a major ocean.
"Most ships that tried to cross the Pacific in the past would get stuck in the gyres and never make it out."
- 1 To spin around; to gyrate, to whirl. intransitive, literary, poetic
"The host of heauenly beautyes moue, / Depainted in their proper stories, / As well the fixd as wandring glories, / Which from their proper orbes not goe, / Whether they gyre swift or slowe: […]"
- 2 To make (something) spin or whirl around; to spin, to whirl. literary, poetic, rare, transitive
Example
More examples"'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, and the mome raths outgrabe."
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin gȳrus (“circle; circular motion”), from Ancient Greek γῦρος (gûros, “circle; ring”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend; to curve”). The English word is a doublet of gyro and gyrus.
From Late Middle English giren (“to turn (something) away; to cause (something) to revolve or rotate; to travel in a circle”), from Old French girer (“to turn”), and directly from its etymon Latin gȳrāre, the present active infinitive of gȳrō (“to turn in a circle, rotate; to circle or revolve around”), from gȳrus (“circle; circular motion”) (see etymology 1) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs).
Related phrases
More for "gyre"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.