What's the difference between whim and whir?

Whim


Definition:

  • (n.) The European widgeon.
  • (n.) A sudden turn or start of the mind; a temporary eccentricity; a freak; a fancy; a capricious notion; a humor; a caprice.
  • (n.) A large capstan or vertical drum turned by horse power or steam power, for raising ore or water, etc., from mines, or for other purposes; -- called also whim gin, and whimsey.
  • (v. i.) To be subject to, or indulge in, whims; to be whimsical, giddy, or freakish.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) A group called Campaign for Houston , which led the opposition, described the ordinance as “an attack on the traditional family” designed for “gender-confused men who … can call themselves ‘women’ on a whim”.
  • (2) If we’re going to change the model, we can’t just do it on a whim of government or the people who design these courses.” What he does like about Think Ahead is that participants will be doing “proper social work”, even if, in his view, they will be unprepared for the task.
  • (3) The previous Ba’athist and Shia governments tried to deviate the Muslim generation from their path through their educational programmes that concord with their governments and political whims.
  • (4) Your whims are Benji's command, readers – tell us where to go!
  • (5) Instead it amounts to exploitation, decided at the whim of a Jobcentre Plus adviser."
  • (6) The only thing she wouldn't do was We Shall Overcome, too sacred to perform on a whim she tells me when I meet her later, besides which - and here she giggles - "we probably won't overcome.
  • (7) I’m probably the hardest bandleader to work for, but I do it for love.” His band have rehearsed around 300 songs, from which Prince can choose at whim, which makes playing live more fun that it used to be.
  • (8) But its purchase and use relies on satisfying personal whim, prejudice or educational fashion, not on considerations of educational efficiency.
  • (9) Journalists who work here are not part of the press pack who must always keep one eye looking over their shoulder at their proprietor’s political whims – on business, on taxation or the European Union.
  • (10) If your reforms are a matter of ideology, legacy, whim and faith, then, like many of your predecessors, you could simply say so, and leave "evidence" to people who mean it.
  • (11) During the local election campaign Farage has also jettisoned, seemingly on his whim, longstanding policies such as a flat rate of tax.
  • (12) The very things that give small charities their allure can also be their greatest limitations Having been managed by a founder in three out of my four major jobs, and working closely with one in the fourth, I have lived out all the symptoms: ad-hoc practices with no systems and processes, unilateral decisions at the whim of the founder, a resistance to professionalising and losing the personal touch, and a way of working that revolves entirely around one person because the assumption is that this immortal personality will be around forever.
  • (13) It isn’t a whim of Thea’s not to go back to the classroom.
  • (14) Significant peptide release occurred only when B15 was stimulated at high frequency or at lower frequencies with a relatively long burst duration (Whim and Lloyd, 1989).
  • (15) He has been right too often in this tournament for it to be down to random chance, to the whims of the gods and to be about anything but cold logic, a huge ego and a steely, steely nerve.
  • (16) We see it in the people who have forgotten their encounter with the Lord ... in those who depend completely on their here and now, on their passions, whims and manias, in those who build walls around themselves and become enslaved to the idols that they have built with their own hands.” 7) Being rivals or boastful.
  • (17) That’s before fuel, water, food and tips for the crew, who will cater to the guests’ every whim as the yacht hops from Sardinia to Monaco to Greece or, during the winter, the Caribbean.
  • (18) But while both of us were at their whim, I pointed out that it was he, not security, who had notified Special Branch.
  • (19) Yet the choice of who should be employed as counselors is based on little more than personal whims of decision makers.
  • (20) Martin Donnelly, permanent secretary of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), did not just wake up one morning and, on a whim, write a lengthy and carefully argued defence of the old Whitehall verities.

Whir


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To whirl round, or revolve, with a whizzing noise; to fly or more quickly with a buzzing or whizzing sound; to whiz.
  • (v. t.) To hurry a long with a whizzing sound.
  • (n.) A buzzing or whizzing sound produced by rapid or whirling motion; as, the whir of a partridge; the whir of a spinning wheel.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Here's a picture of Mike Ashley's whirly-bird instead.
  • (2) In a whir of lycra and straining calf muscles, the sleek, bent bodies flashed past, urged on by the crowds.
  • (3) At night, if you are quiet, you can hear them whirring from the Hills Hoist.
  • (4) We strolled across springy heather and moss as wet as a sponge, and a strange cackling call of “go-back, go-back” rose on the wind: small coveys of red grouse whirred away from us.
  • (5) I’m sure the person had a valid reason but it should be clear that the Ka’bah should not suddenly be surrounding by whirring Segways.” A hoverboard is a levitating board that was popularised by Marty McFly in the Back to the Future films.
  • (6) I see this as the most damaging event for our brand in the company’s 140-year history,” Tanaka said after making a ritual deep bow of contrition while cameras whirred and flashed.
  • (7) Perhaps, rather than the mystique, it’s the sense of knowledge that keeps them hanging on – that perpetual feeling of opening the city up like a pocket watch and seeing its cogs and springs all whirring away inside.
  • (8) This happened on Monday when X-Files star Gillian Anderson retweeted a poster made by a fan, imagining her as the new 007 : the actor photoshopped in front of that big iconic whirly gun barrel and the official logo pasted at the bottom.
  • (9) ‘owl-light’ (Lancashire) fizmer the whispering sound of wind in reeds or grass (Fenland) grimlins the night hours around midsummer when dusk blends into dawn (Orkney) The word-hoard: Robert Macfarlane on rewilding our language of landscape Read more gruffy ground the surface landscape left behind by lead-mining (Somerset) grumma a mirage caused by mist or haze (Shetland) hob-gob a dangerously choppy sea (Suffolk) muxy of land; sticky, miry, muddy (Exmoor) outshifts the fringes and boundaries of a town (Cambridgeshire) roarie-bummlers fast-moving storm clouds (Scots) snow-bones long thin patches of snow still lying after a thaw, often in dips or stream-cuts (Yorkshire) turn-whol a deep and seething pool where two quick streams meet (Cumbria) zwer the whirring sound made by a covey of partridge taking flight (Exmoor)
  • (10) The two other videos uploaded to the account are titled “natural hallucinogen 2x (faster and better trip)” and “natural hallucinogen slow motion (stronger and longer trip),” and depict whirring graphics.
  • (11) But these exchanges are not places either: they are server farms, air-conditioned warehouses filled with rack-mounted computers, complete with blinking lights and whirring discs.
  • (12) For the most part the only sound we hear is the whirring of our wheels and birdsong.
  • (13) That craft whirred into view at 9.50am – cutting it fine for a 10 o'clock meeting, but you know what?
  • (14) "These guys have to be super-smart and super-dedicated," says one manager against the blinking lights and whirring fans.
  • (15) While assembling Room 237, the director found himself watching The Shining again and again, his brain whirring, his senses in uproar.
  • (16) He cut up a 10-volume illustrated Larousse encyclopaedia he'd bought in Bath, apparently using 32 pairs of scissors, and his collage technique helps depict such Thomas phrases as "slow clocks" (cue for several whirring time-pieces) or "the boys are dreaming wicked" (two pin-ups and touches of a Wild West rodeo).
  • (17) But the questions raised by the women's movements whirred around her mind.
  • (18) But against the odds, the cassette has whirred into fabulous life again, and on 7 September, an international event will celebrate its resurgence.
  • (19) He may succeed in crippling al-Qaida and preventing some attacks today, but it is now harder than ever to believe that a young child in Pakistan hearing the whirring noises of drones above them will look up and see Obama's America as "the relentless opponent of terror and tyranny, and the light of hope to the world" .
  • (20) The wingless whirly-bird which brought Danny Graham and his agent to Sunderland is unable to take off because of windy weather conditions.

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