verb
[no object] literaryWhirl or gyrate.
‘a swarm of ghosts gyred around him’- ‘The serpents intertwined, gyring, intertwining and weaved around one another, racing towards her.’
- ‘The current is not, however, continuous around Antarctica and it is absorbed in the two large gyre systems of the Weddell Sea and the Ross Sea.’
- ‘Another no-mates, quarantined island where they gyre and gambol long and hard and in public.’
- ‘Moreover, there was an inspiring chasm between the knowledge that factories and towns lay only a little beyond sight, and the bleak feeling that the primeval cold and the gyring of the snow flakes had wiped away all civilization.’
- ‘In contrast, resuspension of ephippia was inversely related to water column depth and spatially complex, influenced by waves, coastal currents, and offshore gyre circulation.’
noun
1A spiral or vortex.
‘The two source waters of the cold fresh Arctic water and the warm salty Atlantic water form a cyclonic gyre which is closed in its southern section at approximately 72°N by the eastward-flowing current.’- ‘Rivers of plastic objects are carried by great ocean currents from North America, Japan, and other lands along the North Pacific rim into the gyre.’
- ‘I've been turning and turning in the widening gyre.’
- ‘Talk about turning and turning in the widening gyre, I looked up the quotation above, and what do I get?’
- ‘The second turning of the gyre came, literally, out of the blue.’
- 1.1Geography A circular pattern of currents in an ocean basin.‘the central North Pacific gyre’
- ‘These currents flow in large rotating loops called gyres.’
- ‘The August data support the results of earlier investigations that suggested that dynamic forcing by a basinwide gyre is responsible for the upwelling in the open water.’
- ‘Zones of minimum upwelling and, therefore, productivity, occur in the central regions of the oceans known as the gyres.’
- ‘During icehouse periods the distribution of continents inhibited circum-equatorial circulation forcing faster oceanic circulation in the main ocean gyres.’
- ‘Worse, as the streams bend to equalize pressure behind the foil, and may set up a turbulent gyre further slowing the foil by induced drag.’
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense ‘whirl someone or something round’): from late Latin gyrare, from Latin gyrus ‘a ring’, from Greek guros. The noun is from Latin gyrus.
Are You Learning English? Here Are Our Top English Tips