What's the difference between teetotum and whirligig?

Teetotum


Definition:

  • (n.) A child's toy, somewhat resembling a top, and twirled by the fingers.

Example Sentences:

Whirligig


Definition:

  • (n.) A child's toy, spun or whirled around like a wheel upon an axis, or like a top.
  • (n.) Anything which whirls around, or in which persons or things are whirled about, as a frame with seats or wooden horses.
  • (n.) A mediaeval instrument for punishing petty offenders, being a kind of wooden cage turning on a pivot, in which the offender was whirled round with great velocity.
  • (n.) Any one of numerous species of beetles belonging to Gyrinus and allied genera. The body is firm, oval or boatlike in form, and usually dark colored with a bronzelike luster. These beetles live mostly on the surface of water, and move about with great celerity in a gyrating, or circular, manner, but they are also able to dive and swim rapidly. The larva is aquatic. Called also weaver, whirlwig, and whirlwig beetle.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The phenotype of homozygous wrl mutants suggests that the whirligig product plays a role in postmeiotic spermatid differentiation, possibly in organizing the microtubules of the sperm flagellar axoneme.
  • (2) The whirligig locus appears to be haploinsufficient for male fertility.
  • (3) As a 40-year-old engineering graduate, Tsipras is wide open to the accusation of being an “amateur politician” – although any Briton tired of being ruled by our whirligig of zombified former spads might fancy a little conviction, however amateurish.
  • (4) The mutant nc4 allele of whirligig (3-54.4) of Drosophila melanogaster fails to complement mutations in an alpha-tubulin locus, alpha 1t, mutations in a beta-tubulin locus, B2t, or a mutation in the haywire locus.
  • (5) McGuinness was mulling the whirligig of history that had brought him to the very place where Sinn Féin’s Michael Collins signed the Anglo-Irish treaty in 1921 with David Lloyd George.
  • (6) You've had a whirligig few years since leaving the chief executive's job at Barking and Dagenham.

Words possibly related to "teetotum"

Words possibly related to "whirligig"