Dictionary

gyre en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /d͡ʒaɪ.ɚ/ (General-American)
• jīər (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /d͡ʒaɪ.ə/ (Received-Pronunciation)

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.

Meanings

1. (literary, poetic) A swirling vortex.
2. (literary, poetic) A circular or spiral motion; also, a circle described by a moving body; a revolution, a turn.
   • What is art, / But life upon the larger scale, the higher, / When, graduating up in a spiral line / Of still expanding and ascending gyres, / It pushes toward the intense significance / Of all things, hungry for the Infinite? / Art's life,—and where we live, we suffer and toil. 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Fourth Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC, pages 176–177:
   • Quick, and more quick he ſpins in giddy Gires, / Then falls, and in much Foam his Soul expires. 1700, [John] Dryden, “Meleager and Atalanta, out of the Eighth Book of Ovid’s Metamorphosis”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 112:
   • Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; / Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, […] 1920, William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming”, in Michael Robartes and the Dancer, Churchtown, Dundrum [Dublin]: The Cuala Press, →OCLC, page 19:
3. (archaic) Synonym of gyrus (“a fold or ridge on the cerebral cortex of the brain”).
4. 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.

Forms

Deriveds

gyral · gyrose · polygyrous · gyreful · gyrally · isogyre

Relateds

gyrator · gyrate · gyration · gyrencephalate · gyratory · gyrectomy · gyrant · gyro · gyrus

Synonyms

circuit · gyrus · whirl

Translations (24)

mi kōripo (ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner) · bg вихър (swirling vortex) · ro vârtej (swirling vortex) · es remolino (swirling vortex) · bg кръговрат (ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner) · fr gyre (ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner) · pt giro (ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner) · ru вихрь (swirling vortex) · fi pyörre (swirling vortex) · ca gir (ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner) · de Wirbel (ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner) · es giro oceánico (ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner) · de Strudel (swirling vortex) · ca gir oceànic (ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner) · de ozeanischer Wirbel (ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner) · bg водовъртеж (swirling vortex) · es giro (ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner) · pt turbilhão (ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner) · fi pyörre (ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner) · fr gyre océanique (ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner) · pt remoinho (ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner) · mi kōripo (swirling vortex) · cmn 環流 /环流 (ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner) · pt remoinho (swirling vortex)

gyre en · VERB · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /d͡ʒaɪ.ɚ/ (General-American)
• jīər (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /d͡ʒaɪ.ə/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

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).

Meanings

1. (intransitive, literary, poetic) To spin around; to gyrate, to whirl.
   • Jabberwocky. / 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wa[b]e; / All mimsy were the borogoves, / And the mome raths outgrabe. 1871 December 27 (indicated as 1872), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “Looking-Glass House”, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 21:
   • 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: […] 1605, Michael Drayton, “[Songs from the ‘Shepherd’s Garland’.] From Eclogue ij.”, in Cyril Brett, editor, Minor Poems of Michael Drayton, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, published 1907, →OCLC, pages 240–241, lines 4–8:
2. (literary, poetic, rare, transitive) To make (something) spin or whirl around; to spin, to whirl.

Forms

Deriveds

gyring · gyringly

Relateds

gyre-carlin

Synonyms

rotate · revolve