d. 1655. Adams, Works, i. 180. That every novelist with a whirligig in his brain must broach new opinions.
2. (old).—Change, 'the turn of the wheel,' the lapse of time: in quot. 1721 = Time or the World in the abstract.
1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, v. 1. And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.
d. 1721. Prior, Ladle. [The Gods] gave things their Beginning And set this Whirligig a spinning.
3. (provincial).—A carriage: also Whirlicote.
1633. Stowe, Survey of London, 70. Of old time, Coaches were not known in this Iland, but Chariots or Whirlicotes, then so-called.
4. (common).—Applied to various toys or the like: e.g. (a) a top or top-like toy, (b) a tee-totum, (c) a round-about or merry-go-round: also whirler and whirl-about; and (d) a turnstile.
1530. Palsgrave, Lang. Francoyse, 762. I tryll a whirlygig round-aboute . . . je pirouette . . . I holde the a peny that I will tryll my whirlygig longer about than thou.
c. 1735. Arbuthnot and Pope, Martinus Scriblerus. He found that marbles taught him percussion and whirligigs the axis in peritrochio.
5. (old military).—An instrument for punishing petty offenders: a kind of wooden cage, turning on a pivot, in which the culprit was whirled round with great velocity.
Whirrit (Wherret or Whirrick),
subs. (old).—A blow,
slap, box on the ear. As verb =
to box the ears.
1577. Kendall, Flowers of Epigrams. And in a fume gave Furius A whirret on the eare.
1607. Puritan, iv. 2. Troth, now I'm invisible, I'll hit him a sound wherret on the ear, when he comes out of the garden.
c. 1613. Fletcher, Nice Valour, iv. How meekly This other fellow here receives his whirrit.
d. 1713. Ellwood, Life (Howells), 222. Following me at my heels and now and then giving me a whirret on the ear.
1750. Brooke, Fool of Quality, i. 21. Harry . . . gave master such a whirrick that his cries instantly sounded the ne plus ultra to such kind of diversions.
Whishler, subs. (circus).—A ring-*master.
Whisk, subs. (old).—1. A servant:
in contempt.
1653. Brome, Novella. This is the proud braches whiske.
2. (provincial).—An impertinent fellow, saucebox (q.v.), bouncer (q.v.).
Whisker-bed, subs. phr. (common).—The
face.
1853. Bradley, Verdant Green. His ivories rattled, his nozzle barked, his whisker-bed napped heavily.
Whiskers (or Whiskerando),
subs. (common).—A whiskered
person: a jocular salutation,
'Hallo, Whiskers!' Also
Whiskery and Whiskerandoed,
adj. [From Don Ferolo
Whiskerandos in Sheridan's
Critic, 1779.]
1834. Southey, The Doctor, clvi. To what follies and what extravagancies would the whiskerandoed macaronies of Bond Street and St. James's proceed, if the beard once more were, instead of the neckcloth, to 'make the man.'
1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, xli. The old lady is as ugly as any lady in the parish, and as tall and whiskery as a Grenadier. Ibid. (1862), Philip, xiii. The dumpy, elderly, square-shouldered, squinting, carroty, whiskerando of a warrior who was laying about him so savagely.
