purl

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pɜːl/, [pʰəːɫ]
• (US) IPA^(key): /pɝl/, [pʰɝɫ]
• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)l
• Homophone: pearl

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.

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.
   • Sir Philip Sidney

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

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) an inverted stitch producing ribbing etc

   Knit one, purl two.

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

purl (plural purls)

1. a heavy or headlong fall; an upset.

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.

• purler

From Old Norse purla (“to babble”)

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.
   • Alexander Pope

     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 1017756595, 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."

2. To rise in circles, ripples, or undulations; to curl; to mantle.
   • Shakespeare

     thin winding breath which purled up to the sky

purl (plural purls)

1. (Britain, dialectal) A circle made by the motion of a fluid; an eddy; a ripple.
   • Drayton

     Whose stream an easy breath doth seem to blow, / Which on the sparkling gravel runs in purles, / As though the waves had been of silver curls.

   • Jeremy Taylor

     So have I seen the little purls of a stream […] intenerate the stubborn pavement.

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

   the purl of a brook

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

purl (uncountable)

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

     A double mug of purle.

2. (archaic) Hot beer mixed with gin, sugar, and spices.
   • Addison

     Drank a glass of purl to recover appetite.

   • Charles Dickens

     Drinking hot purl, and smoking pipes.

purl (plural purls)

1. (Britain, dialectal) A tern.

• PLUR