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.
Source: wiktionary
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
3 total sentences available.
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.
Source: wiktionary
Our clocks and watches turn deasil, and it would seem odd, almost contrary to nature, to have them turn widdershins. We read deasil, and Macaulay's widdershins writing ‘traced from the right on pages white’ was a conscious oddity of priests. Port was circulated deasil; to send it round widdershins was extremely unlucky. Playing cards are dealt deasil; we turn screws deasil. It is possible to trace our right-handedness to the perception of deasil as the normal direction, and widdershins as abnormal, topsy-turvy, unlucky.
Source: wiktionary
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.
Source: wiktionary
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.