purl

noun

1. A particular stitch in knitting in which the working yarn is pulled through an existing stitch from front to back.
2. The edge of lace trimmed with loops.
3. An embroidered and puckered border; a hem or fringe, often of gold or silver twist; also, a pleat or fold, as of a band.

   “A triumphant chariot made of carnation velvet, enriched with purl and pearl.”

4. a heavy or headlong fall; an upset.
5. (British, dialectal)A circle made by the motion of a fluid; an eddy; a ripple.

   “Caiſters ſiluer Lake, / […] / VVhoſe ſtreame an eaſie breath doth ſeeme to blovve; / VVhich on the ſparkling grauell runns in purles, / As though the vvaues had been of ſiluer curles.”

   “Whatsoever had a beginning, can also have an ending; and it shall die, unless it be daily watered with the purls flowing from the fountain of life, and refreshed with the dew of heaven, and the wells of God: […]”

6. (British, dialectal)A gentle murmuring sound, such as that produced by the running of a liquid among obstructions.

   “the purl of a brook”

7. (British, archaic, dialectal, uncountable)Ale or beer spiced with wormwood or other bitter herbs, regarded as a tonic.

   “A double mug of purle.”

8. (British, archaic, dialectal, uncountable)Hot beer mixed with gin, sugar, and spices.

   “Drank a glass of purl to recover appetite.”

   “Drinking hot purl, and smoking pipes.”

verb

1. To decorate with fringe or embroidered edge

   “Needlework purled with gold.”

2. To use or create a purl stitch or stitches.

   “Knit one, purl two.”

   “Stockinette fabric is created by knitting the right-side rows and purling the wrong-side rows.”

3. (archaic)To upset, to spin, capsize, fall heavily, fall headlong.

   “The huntsman was purled from his horse.”

4. (intransitive)To flow with a murmuring sound in swirls and eddies.

   “Swift o'er the rolling pebbles, down the hills, / Louder and louder purl the falling rills.”

   “There is a water-break formed by a small terrace of rock in mid-stream, and purling with a hollow, delicious monotone—an island of pebbles is above, with here and there smaller ones near the "forks."”

   “At seven minutes past four, while a Bach sonata was purling under the din of the crowd, the President's reaching hand was struck aside, and a man lurched forward. Two shots cracked sharply. There was a moment of dead silence.”

   “A little creek purled down from the mountain over stones[.]”

   “[T]he road purled out ahead of us for miles, all prospect and promise, like the beginning of a long, good friendship.”

5. To rise in circles, ripples, or undulations; to curl; to mantle.

   “thin winding breath which purled up to the sky”