Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The motion of a small stream running among obstructions; also, the murmur it makes in so doing.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of purl.
  • noun the motion of a small stream among obstructions; flowing with a murmuring sound

Etymologies

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Examples

  • This Urban Gardner column incorrectly spelled the term purling as pearling.

    Men With Yarns to Tell Ralph Gardner 2010

  • This is called purling and is done, in the following way: lay the thread over the left needle, and put the right one, downwards from above, behind the thread, into the loop on the left needle, lay the thread upwards from below, over the right needle, draw it through the loop, and drop the loop off the left needle.

    Encyclopedia of Needlework Th��r��se de Dillmont 1868

  • On some of the ballads, several of them flecked with banjo and mandolin, her purling vocals resemble those of Patty Loveless.

    Album review: Sara Evans, "Stronger" 2011

  • Nissan There are many sweet, purling pieces of automotive future-science on the road.

    A Nissan Supercar 2011

  • She stitched away randomly, knitting a little, purling when she had the urge, ending a row when she felt like it, then starting another.

    A Stitch Before Dying Anne Canadeo 2011

  • On some of the ballads, several of them flecked with banjo and mandolin, her purling vocals resemble those of Patty Loveless.

    Album review: Sara Evans's 'Stronger' 2011

  • She stitched away randomly, knitting a little, purling when she had the urge, ending a row when she felt like it, then starting another.

    A Stitch Before Dying Anne Canadeo 2011

  • There are many sweet, purling pieces of automotive future-science on the road.

    Nissan GT-R: A 'Halo Car' With Devil's Horns Dan Neil 2011

  • Slim and I hiked out to a neck of woods just beyond town, and there was the push, a score of husky hobos, charmingly located on the bank of a little purling stream.

    Local Color 2010

  • She stitched away randomly, knitting a little, purling when she had the urge, ending a row when she felt like it, then starting another.

    A Stitch Before Dying Anne Canadeo 2011

Comments

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  • It flows purling, widely flowing, floating foampool, flower unfurling.

    Joyce, Ulysses, 3

    December 30, 2006

  • A wheezed staccato and hypnotic linen

    unendingly whirled with a purling tub

    in the coin-operated laundrette...

    - Peter Reading, Dirty Linen, from Water and Waste, 1974

    June 23, 2008

  • from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

    July 19, 2009