whorl

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A form that coils or spirals; a curl or swirl: spread the icing in peaks and whorls.
2. n. Botany An arrangement of three or more leaves, petals, or other organs radiating from a single node.
3. n. Zoology A single turn or volution of a spiral shell.
4. n. One of the circular ridges or convolutions of a fingerprint.
5. n. Architecture An ornamental device, as in stonework or weaving, consisting of stylized vine leaves and tendrils.
6. n. A small flywheel that regulates the speed of a spinning wheel.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In archaeology, one of certain round objects, sometimes slightly cup-shaped, which are frequently found in excavations. They usually carry marks or inscriptions, and are probably votive offerings. Dr. Schliemann found many thousand terra-cotta whorls in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth cities at Hissarlik. They have been found in Italy, Crete, and elsewhere.
2. n. In botany, a ring of organs all from the same node; a verticil. Every complete flower is externally formed of two whorls of leaves, constituting the floral envelop, or perianth; and internally of two or more other whorls of organs, constituting the organs of fructification. The term whorl by itself is generally applied to a circle of radiating leaves—an arrangement of more than two leaves around a common center, upon the same plane with one another. Also whirl. See cuts under Lavandula, Paris, and Veronica.
3. n. In conchology, one of the turns of a spiral shell; a volution; a gyre. The last whorl, opposite the apex or nucleus, and including the aperture of the shell, is commonly distinguished as the body-whorl. See spire, n., 2 (with cut), and cuts under univalve, Pleurotomaria, and Scalaria. Also whirl.
4. n. In anatomy:
5. n. A volution or turn of the spiral cochlea of man or any mammal. See cut under ear.
6. n. A scroll or turn of a turbinate bone, as the ethmoturbinal or maxilloturbinal. See cut under nasal.
7. n. The fly of a spindle, generally made of wood, sometimes of hard stone, etc. Also thworl and pixy-wheel.

Wiktionary

1. n. A pattern of concentric circles.
2. n. botany A circle of three or more leaves, flowers, or other organs, about the same part or joint of a stem.
3. n. zoology A volution, or turn, of the spire of a univalve shell.
4. n. archaic A flywheel, a weight attached to a spindle, compare 1460.
5. v. intransitive To form a pattern of concentric circles.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) A circle of two or more leaves, flowers, or other organs, about the same part or joint of a stem.
2. n. (Zoöl.) A volution, or turn, of the spire of a univalve shell.
3. n. (Spinning) The fly of a spindle.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a round shape formed by a series of concentric circles (as formed by leaves or flower petals)
2. n. a strand or cluster of hair
3. n. a structure consisting of something wound in a continuous series of loops