eddy

noun

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ed·dy | \ ˈe-dē

plural eddies

Definition of eddy

(Entry 1 of 3)

1a : a current of water or air running contrary to the main current especially : a circular current : whirlpool

b : something moving similarly

2 : a contrary or circular current (as of thought or policy)

eddy

verb

eddied; eddying

Definition of eddy (Entry 2 of 3)

transitive verb

: to cause to move in an eddy

intransitive verb

: to move in an eddy or in the manner of an eddy

Eddy

biographical name

Ed·dy | \ ˈe-dē

Definition of Eddy (Entry 3 of 3)

Mary (Morse) 1821–1910 née Baker American founder of the Christian Science Church

Examples of eddy in a Sentence

Noun The boat was caught in a powerful eddy. Verb The wind gusted and eddied around us. The waves swirled and eddied against the pier.

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun Reconnection is central to many turbulent processes, such as feedback between large and small eddies in Earth’s atmosphere, the heating of the solar corona and the generation of Earth’s magnetic field. — Quanta Magazine, "Could Knots Unravel Mysteries of Fluid Flow?," 9 Dec. 2013 But ocean eddies are too small for even the most powerful supercomputers to resolve in models of the entire planet. — Quanta Magazine, "Scientists Parse Ocean’s Dynamic Role in Climate Change," 11 Apr. 2013 The tornadoes appear to have been landspouts, which form when small eddies of swirling wind near the ground are carried upward and are stretched by a growing storm’s updraft. — Matthew Cappucci, BostonGlobe.com, "Severe weather strikes Spain with extreme flooding, hail, and tornadoes," 27 Aug. 2019 There’s one key difference between the universal scaling phenomenon in far-from-equilibrium systems and the fractal eddies in a turbulent fluid: In the fluid case, Kolmogorov’s law describes energy cascading across spatial dimensions. — Quanta Magazine, "The Universal Law That Aims Time’s Arrow," 1 Aug. 2019 Emotionally, the film operates in a classic Gray area, with barely perceptible eddies that build to a mighty existential wrench. — Rachel Yang, EW.com, "First Ad Astra reviews say Brad Pitt shines in thoughtful, slightly familiar movie," 29 Aug. 2019 Pour milk in coffee, and the eddies and tendrils of white soon fade to brown. — Wired, "Fractal Patterns Offer Clues to the Universe's Origin," 11 Aug. 2019 The definition of turbulence is fairly straightforward: chaotic and capricious eddies of air, disturbed from a calmer state by various forces. — Michelle Z. Donahue, National Geographic, "What is turbulence—and how can you calm down about it?," 12 June 2019 After all, the Midcentury Modern craze that has millennial home buyers so smitten today is itself to a great extent the creation of Wright—reinforced by the back-eddy of his European admirers. — Michael J. Lewis, WSJ, "Bulldozing a Modernist Landmark," 22 June 2019 Recent Examples on the Web: Verb The dancers’ bodies seem always a-curve, torsos and arms frequently describing circles in the air, or whole bodies eddying down and pooling out into soft rolls on the floor. — Janine Parker, BostonGlobe.com, "David Roussève’s REALITY pays tribute to an unsung hero," 5 July 2019 The generous space between them is insurance that a fire in one is less likely to spread to another, and the arrangement ensures there won’t be a constricted area where the wind might eddy in a blizzard and pile snow against a tent entrance. — Barry Lopez, Harper's magazine, "Polar Light," 10 Jan. 2019 This is all great, but no one has ever measured the way that eddies flux heat or CO2. — Quanta Magazine, "Scientists Parse Ocean’s Dynamic Role in Climate Change," 11 Apr. 2013 Below, a meadow of soft gold wild grass sways in the wind like the bay’s eddying waters. — Hamish Bowles, Vogue, "Inside Tory Burch’s Lovingly Restored Antigua Getaway," 15 Aug. 2018 Around the ceiling light, a swarm of flies eddied, droning monotonously. — Ben Taub, The New Yorker, "The Boarder," 30 Apr. 2018 For sixteen months, the Boeing 777 wing flap sailed the Indian Ocean Gyre, meandering and eddying, speeding up and slowing unpredictably, before making landfall on Réunion Island off the east coast of Africa in July. — Bucky Mcmahon, Esquire, "If Anyone Finds MH370, It Will Be the Men on This Ship," 14 Sep. 2015

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'eddy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.