- A rapidly rotating current of water; a vortex.
- Turmoil; whirl.
- A magnetic, impelling force into which one may be pulled.
- A bathtub or pool having jets of warm water that can be directed toward a body part as for therapeutic purposes.
Dictionary:
whirl·pool (hwûrl'pūl', wûrl'-) ![]() |
| Thesaurus: whirlpool |
| US Military Dictionary: whirlpool |
n. a rapidly rotating mass of water in a river or sea into which objects may be drawn, typically caused by the meeting of conflicting currents.
See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: whirlpool |
| Dream Symbol: Whirlpool |
A dream in which a whirlpool poses a threat could indicate that the dreamer is resisting a confrontation with a person or situation that he or she must inevitably confront. A whirlpool can also represent being pulled unwillingly into a confrontation with repressed material in the unconscious mind.
| Wikipedia: Whirlpool |
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A whirlpool is a swirling body of water usually produced by ocean tides. The vast majority of whirlpools are not very powerful. More powerful ones are more properly termed maelstroms. Vortex is the proper term for any whirlpool that has a downdraft. (Technically, these approximate to a 'free vortex', in which the tangential velocity (v) increases as the centre line is approached, so that the angular momentum (rv) is constant). Very small whirlpools can easily be seen when a bath or a sink is draining, but these are produced in a very different manner from those in nature. Smaller whirlpools also appear at the base of many waterfalls. In the case of powerful waterfalls, like Niagara Falls, these whirlpools can be quite strong. The most powerful whirlpools are created in narrow shallow straits with fast flowing water.
The five strongest whirlpools in the world are the Saltstraumen outside Bodø in Norway, which reaches speeds of 37 km/h; the Moskstraumen off the Lofoten islands in Norway (the original maelstrom), which reaches speeds of 27.8 km/h; the Old Sow in New Brunswick, Canada, which has been measured with a speed of up to 27.6 km/h; the Naruto whirlpools in Japan, which have a speed of 20 km/h; and the Corryvreckan in Scotland, which reaches speeds of 18 km/h.
Powerful whirlpools have killed unlucky seafarers, but their power tends to be exaggerated by laymen. There are virtually no stories of large ships ever being sucked into a whirlpool. Tales like those by Paul the Deacon, Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe are entirely fictional. The closest equivalent might have been the short-lived whirlpool that sucked in a portion of Lake Peigneur in New Iberia, Louisiana, USA after a drilling mishap in 1980. This was not a naturally-occurring whirlpool, but a man-made disaster caused by breaking through the roof of a salt mine. The lake then behaved like a gigantic bathtub being drained, until the mine filled and the water levels equalized. Although some boats and semi trailers were pulled into it in the classic whirlpool stereotype, no human lives were lost.
In popular imagination, but only rarely in reality, whirlpools can have the dangerous effect of destroying boats. In the 8th century, Paul the Deacon, who had lived among the Belgii, described tidal bores and the maelstrom for a Mediterranean audience unused to such violent tidal surges:
In "Vingt mille lieues sous les mers" (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea), first published in 1869-1870 in the magazine "Magasin d'Éducation et de Récréation", Jules Verne (1828-1905) wrote :
Which means "Maelstrom! Maelstrom!" he exclaimed! The Maelstrom! Could a more frightening name in a more frightening situation blare in our ear?
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| Translations: Whirlpool |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - strømhvirvel, malstrøm
idioms:
Nederlands (Dutch)
draaikolk, maalstroom
Français (French)
n. - tourbillon, remous
idioms:
idioms:
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - δίνη, ρουφήχτρα
idioms:
idioms:
Português (Portuguese)
n. - remoinho de água (m)
idioms:
idioms:
Español (Spanish)
n. - vorágine, remolino
idioms:
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
漩涡, 混乱, 涡流
idioms:
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 漩渦, 混亂, 渦流
idioms:
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 소용돌이, 혼란, 감아 들이는 힘
idioms:
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) دردور, دوامه ماء
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - מערבולת, שיבולת-מים
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Copyrights:
![]() | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more | |
![]() | Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more | |
![]() | US Military Dictionary. The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. Copyright © 2001, 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more | |
![]() | Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more | |
![]() | Dream Symbol. The Dreams Encyclopedia. 1995 ©Visible Ink Press. All rights reserved. Read more | |
![]() | Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Whirlpool". Read more | |
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