purl

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɜːl/, [pʰəːɫ]

• Audio (Southern England)

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɝl/, [pʰɝɫ]
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)l
• Homophone: pearl

Etymology 1

Unknown; apparently related to Scots and dialect pirl (“twist, ripple, whirl, spin”), and possibly to Older Scots pyrl ("thrust or poke at"). Compare Venetian pirlo, an embellishment where the woven threads are twisted together. May be unrelated to purfle, though the meanings are similar.

Noun

purl (plural purls)

1. A particular stitch in knitting; an inversion of stitches giving the work a ribbed or waved appearance.
2. The edge of lace trimmed with loops.
3. An embroidered and puckered border; a hem or fringe, often of gold or silver twist; also, a pleat or fold, as of a band.
   • a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the page number)”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912, →OCLC:

     A triumphant chariot made of carnation velvet, enriched with purl and pearl.

Translations

a particular stitch in knitting

• Bulgarian: опако (bg) n (opako)
• Dutch: averecht (nl)
• Finnish: nurja silmukka
• German: linke Masche f
• Irish: lúb iompaithe f
• Italian: rovescio (it) m, punto rovescio
• Manx: lhoob bun ry skyn m

Verb

purl (third-person singular simple present purls, present participle purling, simple past and past participle purled)

1. To decorate with fringe or embroidered edge

   Needlework purled with gold.

2. (knitting) To use an inverted stitch producing ribbing etc.

   Knit one, purl two.

Etymology 2

from Middle English pirle (“whirligig”), Middle Italian pirla (“whipping top”).

Noun

purl (plural purls)

1. a heavy or headlong fall; an upset.

Verb

purl (third-person singular simple present purls, present participle purling, simple past and past participle purled)

1. (archaic) To upset, to spin, capsize, fall heavily, fall headlong.

   The huntsman was purled from his horse.

Related terms

• purler

Etymology 3

From Old Norse purla (“to babble”), possibly ultimately from an imitative Germanic base related to Dutch polder, Norwegian puldra (“to gush”) and pulla (“to bubble”), Old English polr (“marsh”).

Verb

purl (third-person singular simple present purls, present participle purling, simple past and past participle purled)

1. (intransitive) To flow with a murmuring sound in swirls and eddies.
   • 1715–1720, Homer, [Alexander] Pope, transl., “Book XXI”, in The Iliad of Homer, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:

     Swift o'er the rolling pebbles, down the hills, / Louder and louder purl the falling rills.

   • 1846 October, Alfred B[illings] Street, “A Day’s Hunting about the Mongaup”, in George R[ex] Graham, editor, Graham’s American Monthly Magazine of Literature and Art, volume XXIX, number 4, Philadelphia, Pa.: George R. Graham & Co., […], →OCLC, page 190:

     There is a water-break formed by a small terrace of rock in mid-stream, and purling with a hollow, delicious monotone—an island of pebbles is above, with here and there smaller ones near the "forks."

   • 2023 October 23, Murr Brewster, “Grizzlies and caribou and wolves, oh my! Savoring Denali’s delights.”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

     [T]he road purled out ahead of us for miles, all prospect and promise, like the beginning of a long, good friendship.

2. To rise in circles, ripples, or undulations; to curl; to mantle.
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC:

     thin winding breath which purled up to the sky

Translations

to make the sound of gently running water

• Bulgarian: ромоля (bg) (romolja)
• Esperanto: lirli
• Ingrian: šolissa
• Maori: hīwawā
• Russian: журчать (ru) (žurčatʹ)
• Ukrainian: дзюрча́ти impf (dzjurčáty), дзюркота́ти impf (dzjurkotáty), дзюркоті́ти impf (dzjurkotíty), журча́ти impf (žurčáty)

Noun

purl (plural purls) (British, dialectal)

1. A circle made by the motion of a fluid; an eddy; a ripple.
   • 1591–1619, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the page)”, in J[ohn] Payne Collier, editor, Poems by Michael Drayton. […], London: […] J[ohn] B[owyer] Nichols and Sons, […] [for the Roxburghe Club], published 1856, →OCLC:

     Whose streame an easie breath doth seeme to blowe; Which on the sparkling grauell runns in purles, / As though the waues had been of siluer curles

   • 1668, Jeremy Taylor, “Twenty-seven Sermons Preached at Golden Grove; Being for the Summer Half-year, […]: Sermon VIII. A Funeral Sermon, &c.”, in Reginald Heber, editor, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D. […], volume VI, London: Ogle, Duncan, and Co. […]; and Richard Priestley, […], published 1822, →OCLC, page 453:

     Whatsoever had a beginning, can also have an ending; and it shall die, unless it be daily watered with the purls flowing from the fountain of life, and refreshed with the dew of heaven, and the wells of God: […]

2. A gentle murmuring sound, such as that produced by the running of a liquid among obstructions.

   the purl of a brook

Etymology 4

Possibly from the pearl-like appearance caused by bubbles on the surface of the liquid.

Noun

purl (uncountable)

1. (archaic) Ale or beer spiced with wormwood or other bitter herbs, regarded as a tonic.
   • 1711, The Spectator, number 88:

     A double mug of purle.

2. (archaic) Hot beer mixed with gin, sugar, and spices.
   • 1712 March 15 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “TUESDAY, March 4, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 317; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume IV, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

     Drank a glass of purl to recover appetite.

     The spelling has been modernized.

   • 1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, chapter 60:

     Drinking hot purl, and smoking pipes.

Etymology 5

Noun

purl (plural purls)

1. (UK, dialect) A tern.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “purl”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• PLUR, plur.