Definition of "thirl"

thirl¹

/θɝl/

noun
plural thirls
1. (archaic or dialectal) A hole, an aperture, especially a nostril.
2. (dialectal) A low door in a dry-stone wall to allow sheep to pass through; a smoot.
3. (mining, possibly obsolete) A short communication between adits in a mine.
4. (mining, possibly obsolete) A long adit in a coalpit.

thirl²

/θɝl/

verb
third-person singular simple present thirls, present participle thirling, simple past and past participle thirled
1. (transitive, possibly obsolete) To pierce; to perforate, penetrate, cut through.
  Quotations
  But yet his hardnesse savde him not against the piercing dart. / For hitting right betweene the scales that yeelded in that part / Whereas the joynts doe knit the backe, it thirled through the skin, / And pierced to his filthy mawe and greedy guts within.
  1567, Arthur Golding: Ovid's Metamorphoses Bk. 3 lines 78-81
2. (transitive, mining, obsolete) To drill or bore; to cut through, as a partition between one working and another.

thirl³

/θɝl/

verb
third-person singular simple present thirls, present participle thirling, simple past and past participle thirled
1. (obsolete) To throw (a projectile).
  Quotations
  And many Authours doe in this manner wound the protection of their cause, by over-rashly running against that which they take hold-of, thirling [translating lanceant] such darts at their enemies, that might with much more advantage be cast at them.
  1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […]

thirl⁴

/θɝl/

verb
third-person singular simple present thirls, present participle thirling, simple past and past participle thirled
1. (historical, transitive) To legally bind (a tenant) to the use of one's own property as an owner.
2. (by extension) To bind; to obligate to use or be associated with.
  Quotations
  Was everyone nowadays thirled to a formula?
  1951, Josephine Tey, The Daughter of Time, page 10
  And there are plenty of people — Labour politicians, for example — who want people to remain thirled to poverty, who do not want them to have any spirit or independence.
  2005, Alexander McCall Smith, 44 Scotland Street
noun
plural thirls
1. (historical) A thrall.