Meanings
- The course of events; the passage of time.
The whirligig of time had brought in its revenges, and very swiftly too. The policeman who gladly would have beaten me moments before now feared for his job and thought he was in my power.
2017, Theodore Dalrymple, The Knife Went In2 more examples
Why ſome are borne great, ſome atchieue greatneſſe, and ſome haue greatneſſe throwne vpon them. I was one ſir, in this Enterlude, one ſir Topas ſir, but that’s all one: By the Lo[r]d Foole, I am not mad: but do you remember, Madam, why laugh you at ſuch a barren raſcall, and you ſmile not he’s gag’d: and thus the whirlegigge of time, brings in his reuenges.
c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 275, columns 1–2In nothing has the whirligig of time so redressed the balance between the sexes as in this business of getting up in the morning. Woman, when not an adept of the Higher Beauty Culture, has now little to do beyond washing, stepping into a garment or two, and walking downstairs. Man, still slave to the button and the razor, clings to the ancient ceremonial of potter and gets himself up by instalments.
1937, Dorothy L. Sayers, Busman's Honeymoon
Cite this entry
whirligig of time. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whirligig%20of%20time
“whirligig of time.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whirligig%20of%20time. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “whirligig of time,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whirligig%20of%20time.
Source: whirligig of time on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.