eddy

6 definitions • 9 examples

If water, wind, smoke, etc. eddies, it moves fast in a circle:

The water eddied around in a whirlpool.

If a large group of people eddies somewhere, the people go there together while constantly moving around within their group:

He joined the flood of students eddying toward the second-floor lockers.

She watched the small groups of protesters eddy across the courtyard.

to come and go in large quantities, without becoming firmly fixed:

He is adept at placing Einstein in the stream of ideas and theories that eddied about in the intellectual currents of the day.

But what is all this stuff that eddies in your head all the time?

a fast, circular movement of water, wind, smoke, etc.:

The bend in the river had caused an eddy of fast swirling water.

a situation in which a lot of things are happening or changing at one time:

She was caught up in an eddy of social engagements.

The swirling eddy of privacy concerns will be taken up by both House and Senate Commerce committees in the coming months.

(of water, wind, smoke, etc.) to move fast in a circle:

The water eddied ceaselessly in the wake of the boat.