Definition of "whorl" []

• A form that coils or spirals; a curl or swirl: spread the icing in peaks and whorls. (noun)
• Botany An arrangement of three or more leaves, petals, or other organs radiating from a single node. (noun)
• Zoology A single turn or volution of a spiral shell. (noun)
• One of the circular ridges or convolutions of a fingerprint. (noun)
• Architecture An ornamental device, as in stonework or weaving, consisting of stylized vine leaves and tendrils. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Lift up the two loops of the double-drive belt and put one loop over a bobbin whorl, and one loop over a flyer whorl."
• "There are many differences between their shells, but the most significant and the easily noticeable is the width of the body whorl, which is much larger relative to the width of the preceding whorl in H. aspersa than it is in E. vermiculata."
• "Figure 305, although showing an appendage upon each recurve on the left side, is classified as a whorl of the central pocket loop type, with two deltas and a recurve in front of each."