whirl

To try something (often for the first time as a means of forming an opinion about it). A: "Do you want to try driving my car, to see how you like it?" B: "Yeah, sure, I'll give it a whirl." I don't usually like hot tea, but it's so cold out that I gave it a whirl today.

to make a try at something. Why don't you give it a go and see if you like it?

to turn around very quickly. I tapped him on the shoulder and he whirled around to see who it was. Todd whirled around and grabbed Max by the wrists.

to turn someone or something around quickly. I grabbed him by the shoulder and whirled him around to face me. I whirled around the book display and found what I wanted.

to try something Tan had given up technical writing to give fiction a whirl.

to attempt to do something I've never danced salsa before but I'll give it a shot.

Make a brief or experimental try, as in I've never made a pie but I'll give it a whirl. [Colloquial; late 1800s]

Boundless energy. Dervishes are members of a mendicant religious order of Sufi Moslems. Part of their worship is a trance-inducing ritual in which the men, who wear billowing white skirts whirl in circles meant to replicate planets revolving around the sun. “Whirling dervish” became a metaphor for nonstop energy, used in such ways as “He dashed through the hardware store, then ran home and cleaned out the garage and then built shelves along one wall, all before lunch—he was a regular whirling dervish.”