Definition of "birl"

About nine in the morning, in a burst of wintry sun between two squalls of hail, I had my first look of Holland - a line of windmills birling in the breeze.

1893, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter XXII, in Catriona, Helvoetsluys

"I'll maybe no trouble you long, boys," he moaned lugubriously. "My heid's birling roond that fast that I canna even mind my own name two meenutes."

1906, Neil Munro, The Vital Spark, reprinted in 1958, Para Handy Tales

"That's nothing!" my companion repressed me, "anybody can birl a log. Watch this."Roaring Dick for the first time unfolded his arms. With some appearance of caution he balanced his unstable footing into absolute immobility. Then he turned a somersault.

1903 April, Stewart Edward White, “The Riverman”, in McClure's Magazine, volume 20

So saying, he led the way out through halls and trances that were weel kend to my gudesire, and into the auld oak parlour; and there was as much singing of profane sangs[sic], and birling of red wine, and speaking blasphemy and sculduddry, as had ever been in Redgauntlet Castle when it was at the blithest.

1824, Sir Walter Scott, Redgauntlet

Affirmation of the desirability of birls is a key element throughout this online site even when complex issues of gender and sexual positioning are being worked through.

2007, Susan Driver, Queer Girls and Popular Culture: Reading, Resisting, and Creating Media

The birls forum describes itself as "a community dedicated to boyish/androgynous girls" with open borders such that "all people who don't define themselves as birls are welcome as well, including femmes, bioboys, androgynes, and transguys ... or you could just make up your own label for who you are" (Birls Live Journal, 2004).

2013, David Buckingham, Rebekah Willett, Digital Generations: Children, Young People, and the New Media