chiefly Scottish
as in to drink
to take part in drunken revelry spent a good part of his time in Edinburgh birling into the wee small hours of the night

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Examples of birl in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web There was sea salt in the air, and sleepless seagulls were birling in the darkness overhead. Douglas Stuart, The New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2020 Another, unable to reach dry land, dug his spiked boots into a slippery timber and birled downriver. Popular Mechanics Editors, Popular Mechanics, 16 Feb. 2019 In some parts of the United States, birling contests are annual events. Popular Mechanics Editors, Popular Mechanics, 16 Feb. 2019

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'birl.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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Cite this Entry

“Birl.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/birl. Accessed 20 Sep. 2024.

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