Dictionary

gurl en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /ɡɜːl/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ɡɝl/ (General-American)
• /ɡʊɹ(ə)l/ (General-American)

Etymology

Variant spelling of girl.

Meanings

1. (alt-of, alternative, informal, nonstandard, pronunciation-spelling) Alternative form of girl.
   alt of girl
   • Gurl! How well we know that feeling. 2025 June 21, Jo Ellison, “The Bezos merger we all want a piece of”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 22:
   • An' Lee went closer to where the gurl was waitin'. His party follered an' I follered too.... Jest whin the moosic sthopped an' the gurl looked up—thin she seen Lee. 1920, Zane Grey, The U.P. Trail:
   • All gurl's good fur—jist To dust an' sweep, an' scold, An' sew on buttons what yo mus't Sewin' on last week. Wush't Iwuz a boy! 2013, Karen L. Kilcup, Angela Sorby, Over the River and Through the Wood, →ISBN:
   • Damn white gurl Thought you was A1 Yet your existence a none 2012, Krystina V, A Diva's love Affair, →ISBN, page 22:
2. (qualifier:LGBTQ slang) Term of address between cis gay men, transgender women, or drag queens.
3. A trans girl or woman.
   • For example, “queer” would include self-identified lesbians and gays who also have sex with the “opposite sex,” sexual practices and relationships that include kink, s/m, polyamory, and pansexuality, gender play and fuck including femmes and those feminine of center, butches and those masculine of center, queens, femboys, gurls, bois, sissies, tomboys, crossdressers, drag queens and kings, and genderfluid people. 2016, Cindy I-Fen Cheng, The Routledge Handbook of Asian American Studies:

Forms

Deriveds

Miss Gurl

Relateds

girl · boi

gurl en · VERB · etymology 2

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English gurlen (“to growl, rumble”).

Meanings

1. (Ireland, Scotland) To growl or snarl.
   • The poor little doctor, thus rudely and suddenly aroused from his tipsy sleep, looked excessively bewildered when he opened his eyes, and met the glare of ferocious delight that Darby Kelleher cast upon him, and he gurled out, “What's the matter?” as well as the grip of Darby's hand upon his throat would permit him. 1834, Samuel Lover, Legends and Stories of Ireland:
   • “Weel may ye mind, yon night sae black, Whan fearfu' winds loud gurled, And mony a lum dang down—and stack, Heigh i' the air up swirled, Alangst yon brae, ye clam, and stack, 1845, Alexander Wilson, Poetical Works: With an Extended Memoir of His Life and Writings:

Forms

Deriveds

gurly