Definition of spiral in English:

spiral

adjective ˈspʌɪr(ə)lˈspaɪrəl

1Winding in a continuous and gradually widening (or tightening) curve, either round a central point on a flat plane or about an axis so as to form a cone.
a spiral pattern
Example sentencesExamples
- It was white with a red and blue spiral tie-dye pattern, and had a Yin / Yang symbol at the center.
- Most of those photos show the orbs to have a spiral pattern inside the orb.
- Place the dough in a greased banitsa pan, starting in the middle and spiralling out, pressing the coils into the spiral shape towards the edge of the pan, baking as above.
- If they had a very special request they purchased a spiral coil of incense which was suspended from the ceiling and burned slowly over a whole week.
- The way in which the spiral patterns of sunflower seeds and pine cones grow is described by the sequence, and it is common for the number of petals on a flower to be a Fibonacci number.
- Female tusks, when they do appear, tend to be shorter and cleaner with more tightly wound spiral patterns.
- The barren land around her was lit, revealing the tents that swirled around in a spiral pattern.
- As soon as the tumbler begins turning, a spiral pattern appears as grains of one color wrap around grains of the other color.
- When the solution is placed as a thin film under stationary conditions, concentric or spiral wave patterns develop in the solution.
- Complexity is the study of how complicated systems can generate simple behavior, such as the sustained spiral pattern seen here.
- It was like a pink disk, flat, and inch across, a spiral pattern of tiny dots on its surface.
- The large coiled-straw hat forms a spiral pattern above the sharecropper's graying head, a halo earned, but perhaps too little too late.
- Down would go a wing, and the plane would enter a spiral spin.
- The spiral pattern is sufficiently regular that it leads to a numerical parameter characteristic for the species, called its divergence.
- Mina lowered her eyes to my shirt, tracing the blue spiral pattern with the fingertips of her left hand.
- Arrange all integers in a hexagonal spiral pattern.
- This creates the spiral Damascus pattern and it is forged again to form a billet.
- I traced the spiral pattern on one of the rugs with me toe.
- Hundreds of truckloads of mining refuse were brought in, then planted with 11,000 Finnish pine trees in a complex spiral pattern.
- Most crop deformations appear as simple, nearly perfect circles of grain flattened in a spiral pattern.
1. 1.1 Winding in a continuous curve of constant diameter about a central axis, as though along a cylinder; helical.
  Example sentencesExamples
  A round steel newel post supports a spiral oak volute and anchors the balustrade to a wide bottom step.
  The gold mounting is decorated with pearling and designed in a spiral pattern that has been heavily chased to give the effect of octopus tentacles.
  Helicobacter pylori, a spiral bacterium of the stomach, infects more than half of the world's population.
  The atoms of natural sugars are all laid out in an asymmetrical manner, having a right-handed spiral twist.
  The unit pictured has a spiral twist, first bent around a big tin can, then a smaller one and then an even smaller one for smooth curves.
  Circular accelerators move particles along a circular or spiral path in machines that vary in size from less than a few feet to many miles in diameter.
  In the spring, I took in an exhibit of Frank Gehry models and drawings arrayed along the spiral ramp within the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
  Volvulus classically appears on the upper GI as a spiral corkscrew of the duodenum.
  They were fleshy and tender like her own arms, but rimmed with spiral corkscrew blades which stretched from wrist to shoulder on each limb, and of course, the hooks.
  Basically, you twist the developing can in a spiral movement as you invert it.
  I will fly counterclockwise around the station in a spiral pattern, starting at the bottom.
  If you take a look, you will see that, in many cases, as you progress up along a stem, the leaves are located on a spiral path that winds around the stem.
  At the edge of each floorplate is a spiral atrium, created by ‘twisting’ each successive floor.
  The plates were shaped to induce spiral motion in the particles, since accelerating them along a straight track would require an accelerator longer than the laboratory.
  Many club mosses have leaves which are attached in a spiral pattern, while in other creeping species the leaves are all oriented in the same plane.
  This meant the dogs had to run at different speeds along their spiral paths.
  She was twisting the spiral cord with her long red nails.
  The Comanche had gone into spiral mode, twisting this way and that in a futile attempt to stay airborne.
  The male reproductive system contains four pairs of accessory glands, the most prominent of which are the tightly coiled spiral accessory glands.
  Synonyms
  coiled, helical, helix-shaped, corkscrew, curling, winding, twisting, whorled, scrolled
  technical cochlear, cochleate, voluted, helicoid, helicoidal
2. 1.2 (of a stairway) constantly turning in one direction as it rises, round a solid or open centre.
  a wrought-iron spiral staircase
  Example sentencesExamples
  They made their way down a spiral corridor of stairs.
  Our first house wasn't huge, but when I was eight we moved to this enormous place in Hampstead, next to Sting, with spiral stairs and marble floors and a back garden like a playing field.
  The party fell back; squatting around the spiral stairwell, pointing their weapons in preparation.
  Kira rolled her eyes and followed her, up a long spiral stairway.
  Patsy got up thereafter and redressed, put on her makeup and then went downstairs and found the three-page ransom note at the bottom of the spiral stairway.
  Each floor has an oblong chamber with a small room and spiral stair in the wall thickness at the seaward end.
  Anyone climbing the ladder to the loft is suspended above the vertical spiral stairwell - not recommended for those nervous of heights.
  A spiral staircase might be a good choice, as you don't have a lot of room, and a spiral stair will take up less room.
  They found the stairway - a spiral stairway constructed of black marble - almost immediately and started up it.
  At the foot of the spiral stairway, they presented Tetra with their star spangled permits.
  The damage to one of the two great pinnacles that top the East Front is so bad that if you stand in the spiral stairway inside, you can see daylight through joints between the stones.
  She pushed open the door and instantly headed up the spiral stairs to the third floor, to her room.
  The spiral stairwell that circled lazily through each floor was merely inches from the inside of the closet.
  All include a mezzanine level with a wrought-iron spiral stairway leading from a comfortable sitting area to the bedroom above.
  She descended the dark spiral stairway, careful not to hit her elbows against the narrow passage.
  There are some instances, like the spiral stairwell, I know he would've done something in.
  Bahamut proceeded into the enclosed spiral stairwell that would lead them to the peak of the mountain.
  Quiet, clean and spare, it led, past a short spiral stairway with a gallery, to a darker room.
  I decided to leave our luggage downstairs rather than negotiate the spiral stairway.
  The three of them walked single file down past the familiar sets of doors and the rows of bunks and again entered the spiral stairwell.
3. 1.3Medicine (of a fracture) curving round a long bone lengthwise.
  Example sentencesExamples
  Luckily, the break was in a spiral fracture and I didn't need any plates or screws, so they just slapped a cast on my leg, gave me some Motrin, and I was on my way.
  A throwing fracture is a spiral fracture of the shaft of the humerus which is caused by the high torque on the arm during the throw.
  Recently he was forced to take an extended break to recover from a spiral fracture to his fibula, which ended up requiring multiple surgeries.
  The 26-year-old received a spiral fracture of the right leg last May, but is poised to start the final surge back to full fitness next week.
  Transverse fractures are often harder to align and immobilise than apparently more serious oblique or spiral fractures.
4. 1.4
  a spiral notebook
  short for spiral-bound
  Example sentencesExamples
  I keep these spiral notebooks, and everyday I write down the date and start a new page.
  Tiara snatched a spiral notebook out of Erik's hand.
  I always carry a small spiral notebook in my shirt pocket and, more recently, a small electronic memo recorder, to save ideas and images for future use.
  In either case, the child's responses may be recorded as a check on sticky labels, Post-it pads, or in a small spiral notebook.
  A small wooden desk, bearing a blue ceramic lamp and a spiral notebook, crouched bowlegged in one corner.
  For some reason the girl closed herself off even more, keeping to her spiral notebook and taking in what the teachers had to say.
  The truth was locked up in the confines of my spiral notebook.
  In English we all get a spiral notebook we're to write in.
  But, now, she was scrawling badly jumbled words in an old spiral notebook that she rarely ever used.
  He carried a large spiral notebook under his left arm.
  ‘We write in a spiral notebook, and when we need to name a foal we refer to it for ideas,’ Charles said.
  Kerrie reached down at her side and picked up a spiral notebook.
  I write in spiral notebooks, the plain, drugstore kind.
  I closed my spiral notebook and stuffed it into my bag.
  To complement such play, a simple recipe book with large numbers, words, and pictures can be made out of a spiral notebook with laminated pages.
  As a compact, portable device, the Tablet PC, which is about the size of a typical spiral notebook, is said to add a new dimension to the classroom.
  When I sat down at my desk, I pulled out my spiral notebook.
  For several months now I've been carrying around a little pocket-size spiral notebook in my jacket.
  People behind these spiral notebooks with glossy finishing and other stationery items are mentally challenged children.

nounPlural spirals ˈspʌɪr(ə)lˈspaɪrəl

1A spiral curve, shape, pattern, or object.
a spiral of smoke
Example sentencesExamples
- It is useful to observe the patient drinking from a glass, writing, or drawing a rhythmic pattern such as a spiral.
- Angeli's many works were on infinitesimals and he used them to study spirals, parabolas and hyperbolas.
- For more than three centuries botanists and mathematicians have marveled at the complex and beautiful spiral patterns that form as plants develop.
- That is why that is such an important moment, not because the thing was shaped like two spirals - that's just aesthetically pleasing - but because the world changed on that day.
- She pulled out something that looked to be a key, but it was made of crystal, and the end of it curved into a spiral.
- For another example from the botanical world, if you look at a sunflower you will see a beautiful pattern of two spirals, one running clockwise, the other counterclockwise.
- The designs are sometimes simply spirals or other patterns, but they might also be scenes from fairy tales or of famous people or places.
- Headdresses, like the African one pictured in this article, show one way in which people have used spirals based on shapes found in Nature for headdresses.
- On the bare floorboards was a design, a twisting pattern of spirals and waves that was mesmerising.
- In ever-more-abstracted form and diverse media, these elemental shapes, such as spirals, labyrinths, lozenges, and goddesses, recurred in her work.
- Although dubbed ‘Gherkin,’ the spiral in its shape more resembles a pinecone.
- We show elementary hand-drawn patterns such as spirals and gold bands.
- Afterwards, he paced around in his own form, then as deer-beast, and then returned to his true shape to fly in spirals above the temporary camp.
- Fowler's work consists of repetitive handwritten words, scribed on paper in spirals and other patterns.
- It has a top speed of fifty five miles per hour and riders will experience spirals, corkscrews, a cobra roll, and overbanked curves.
- In it he describes very clearly the distinctive spiral shaped organisms which were later identified as being part of the helicobacter family.
- However, I do remember clearly the double spiral (figure-of-eight) shape.
- Small spiral shaped gills are found, which pick up oxygen from the water.
- Deeply engraved in each structure was a pattern of wings and spirals, that almost resembled a bird flying towards the ceiling.
- The pattern can be spied in everything from the spirals of sea shells to the shape of pine cones.
Synonyms
coil, helix, curl, corkscrew, twist, gyre, whorl, scroll, curlicue, convolution
technical volute, volution
1. 1.1Astronomy
  short for spiral galaxy
  Example sentencesExamples
  Hubble's tuning fork distinguishes ‘normal’ spiral galaxies from spirals that show a bar across the center.
  Galaxies and nebulae are often enormous spirals floating in outer space.
  Both galaxies are spirals of roughly the same age, with stars strewn across flattened disks of roughly the same size, more than 100,000 light-years across.
  Starbirth regions exist in most galaxies, particularly in spirals, and are obvious as clouds of predominantly hydrogen gas call H II regions.
2A progressive rise or fall of prices, wages, etc., each responding to an upward or downward stimulus provided by a previous one.
an inflationary spiral
Example sentencesExamples
- Manufacturers also reported pressure from rising input costs, as oil prices continued their upward spiral.
- Meritz also believes that the major memory producers will soon begin to cut back on production in a bid to prevent the downward spiral of DRAM prices.
- Why work when we can all borrow against an ever upward spiral of house prices?
- Economists said the increase was higher than had been expected and presented a danger that the economy would become caught up in a spiral of higher wage demands and higher prices.
- Carrefour and Casino have shown disappointing growth since the French government demanded a year ago that the country's food retailers reverse the upward spiral of prices.
- As a result, there was an upward spiral in the share price of GTB, which helped it achieve a better swap ratio in the merger.
- It's not workers caught in downward wage spirals.
- The output reductions would be made with a view to halting the downward spiral of DRAM prices, itself caused by supply vastly outweighing demand.
- He also said the Japanese economy is not about to fall into a deflationary spiral under which price falls and economic contraction take place simultaneously.
- But if inflation is negative, that strategy won't work, and the economy could fall into a downward spiral.
- This is stuff that can put us on the front page of The Wall Street Journal and our share price in a downward spiral.
- Nesc says inflation must be tackled to avoid a wage price spiral becoming embedded in the economy.
- It is no less important to ensure that costlier fuel does not give rise to an excessive inflationary spiral as regards the prices of other goods and services.
- There would be a downward spiral of prices, but no actual increase in market share for any of the firms involved.
- Until recently, the Fed was worried that the nation would fall into deflation - a downward spiral of prices.
- The company's share price, already in a downward spiral, continued its fall and has now lost half its value in the past year and a half.
- The residents are quite rightly convinced it will blight the area and lead to increased crime and a downward spiral of house prices.
- As for property prices, there is no end to their upward spiral in sight.
- Price pressure could lead to a wage spiral while dangerously high government spending also poses very real dangers down the line, he warned.
- Unfortunately, the downward spiral in price would be a direct consequence of any further reduction in tariff protection.
Synonyms
growth, rise, enlargement, expansion, extension, multiplication, elevation, swelling, inflation
1. 2.1 A process of deterioration through the continuous increase or decrease of a specified feature.
  this spiral of deprivation and environmental degradation
  Example sentencesExamples
  Chazan described the Israeli-Palestinian situation as a mess for the past four years and two months - a cycle of violence in a deteriorating spiral.
  Since you broke up she's embarked on a downward spiral of dating increasingly unattractive men and it all makes for quite desperate reading.
  There is a continuous downward spiral of living conditions for the majority of the population.
  The downward spiral on local business will only get worse, they fear.
  The highest rates of sexual infection and unwanted pregnancy are in people from deprived backgrounds further increasing the spiral of decline into poverty and ill health.
  The huge work pressure the tutorial system creates, can lead students into a downward spiral of self-deprecation and loss of confidence.
  Players were sold to try to take up some of the slack, increasing the spiral of disaster.
  The bulk of the first half of the film concerns Jack Magnus's introduction to drugs and his downward spiral into self-destructive addiction.
  Nick Duerden's second novel studies the spiral of self destructiveness, and how some can fail over and over again yet still come out winning.
  Bender gets hooked on electricity, and Fry and the gang worry that he's on a downward spiral toward self-destruction.
  Or else he will become one more voice in the wilderness in a country determined to go on a downward spiral of social and ecological self-destruction.
  This loss sends the relationship into a downward spiral, leading to increased bickering and fighting, and to the collapse of the union.
  ‘I'm a great optimist, but we're now caught in a downward spiral, economically and socially,’ he said.
  This went on to cause no end of grief for her Mum and a downward spiral of self-destruction for this confused young teen.
  The problem is how easy it is for an enjoyable night to slide into a downward spiral of chasing losses and going on tilt.
  His term also saw a further increase in the spiral of violence, increasingly carried out by actors independent of the state.
  It was a gradual process that progressed through a downward spiral of self destruction.
  The collapse of the property bubble and the Asian financial crisis in 1997 sent the city into a downward spiral of job losses and deflation.
  Datalex continued its downward spiral after reporting a larger than expected second-quarter loss last week.
  Over the next few years, she would hear about him through her brother, about his remarriage, his downward spiral, his self-destruction.

verbspirals, spiralling, spiralled, spiraling, spiraled ˈspʌɪr(ə)lˈspaɪrəl

1no object, with adverbial of direction Move in a spiral course.
a wisp of smoke spiralled up from the trees
Example sentencesExamples
- Faint smoke spiraled off the battery connections as they heated up.
- A huge blaze at an industrial park in Leeds last night sent plumes of black smoke spiralling nearly 2,000 ft into the air.
- Ivan started climbing the staircase that spiraled up to the payload section and gangway.
- In the clear blue sky above, four open-billed storks had a got a thermal and were spiralling up, Icaris-like, on motionless wings, to an unknown destination.
- After being cooped up in those constricting nests for months, here they were climbing, diving, spiraling and chattering feverishly, becoming better aeronauts by the minute.
- Hitting the far wall, he slipped down to the floor, escaping the rest of Shanza's attack, which roared through the obstacle to spiral out of the Temple and shoot into the sky.
- Sammy tapped her thumb furiously on the kick button, blocked Jack's move, and sent the character spiraling into the air.
- A cloud was slowly spiraling towards the sun and they retreated, moving to the edge of the forest, watching the skeletons appear one by one.
- Jane stared down at the water, the fish spiralling, swimming, moving with the current.
- The dance troupe recounts the death of gods - from the polluted air and the smoke spiraling up from sacrifices made in their honour.
- The butterflies leapt into flight, spiraling up into the sunlight, up and up until Joshua could no longer see them.
- Moss clung to the rocks and ivy climbed tirelessly, spiralling around the trees.
- White smoke must soon spiral up from Smith Square.
- The blast ripped through three storeys of the building and started a fire which sent smoke spiralling through the twin towers.
- When she looked around, she saw smoke spiraling from Charybdis.
- Soon enough, our intrepid reporter hero realizes that, due to some nuclear explosion experimentation, the earth has been thrust out of its orbit and is now spiralling towards the sun.
- The missiles that we shot just spiraled randomly after a second or two after being shot.
Synonyms
coil, wind, twirl, swirl, twist, wreathe, snake, gyrate
1. 1.1with object and adverbial Cause to have a spiral shape or follow a spiral course.
  spiral the bandage round the limb
  Example sentencesExamples
  Twist the rod until the hair section is spiralled around it (the barrel should be held vertically, so the top is pointing up).
  Digital modification stands in for genetic, and so the animals are lengthened, spiralled or moved across the picture plane as if a magnetic force - an exterior one - operated.
  Synonyms
  coil, wind, twirl, swirl, twist, wreathe, snake, gyrate
2no object Show a continuous and dramatic increase.
inflation continued to spiral
Example sentencesExamples
- All the words they use are true: prices are soaring, spiralling, skyrocketing.
- The stress with trying to move house has spiralled out of all control and doesn't look like it's going to reduce in the near future.
- Unemployment soared, thousands emigrated and the national debt spiralled out of control.
- The downward move came as fears eased that the hostage standoff could spiral out of control.
- Regulation of the language school sector is needed urgently to combat spiralling levels of visa fraud involving thousands of individuals, a senior Garda has warned.
- The Northern Ireland drug chief, Jo Daykin, yesterday said cannabis use there could spiral following the move.
- Tuition fees and the cost of living can lead to spiralling debts, or long hours in dead-end jobs taken to make ends meet.
- Houses gone out of people's reach, rents spiralling, inadequate hospital services, too few places for children at risk - it's all there under the cover of affluence.
- I don't care enough about furniture, fast moving consumer goods, spiralling debt, bad public transport, grumpy angry faces.
- But of course the story has to spiral out of control ending in a ridiculous scene involving the social worker who has been assigned to Denise and RJ's case.
- Policing the event, diverting the traffic and setting up and marshalling the course would see the costs spiralling.
- As tensions have spiraled between Pyongyang and the US, Anti-American sentiment has exploded in South Korea.
- Shortages for low-income Torontonians were once again rampant, rents were spiraling and evictions were increasing.
- It is also around four times the original estimate, and as costs spiralled, Congress moved to scrap the project in its entirety.
- He said this led to spiralling levels of thuggishness, vandalism and violent crime when revellers spilled on to the streets at closing time, especially on Friday and Saturday nights.
- A growing compensation culture is being blamed by councillors in Leeds for the city's spiralling legal bill which has reached £22m.
- Above any other area in the county the people of Ballon have faced tragedy after tragedy as the carnage on their local roads spirals to epidemic proportions.
- ‘The problem is further exacerbated by spiralling operational cost and high turnover of staff,’ Roopnarine said.
- But the cost of the equipment they need, such as ropes, flares and the transmitters that detect the position of avalanche victims, is spiralling beyond the teams' ability to raise cash.
Synonyms
soar, shoot up, rocket, increase rapidly, rise rapidly, leap up, escalate, climb, mount
informal skyrocket, go through the ceiling, go through the roof
1. 2.1spiral down/downward Decrease or deteriorate continuously.
  he expects the figures to spiral down further
  Example sentencesExamples
  The neoliberal ‘medicine’ made the sickness worse: unemployment rocketed, living standards spiralled downwards.
  Nationally, there was also some good news with a 29 per cent drop, with the figure for the month spiralling down to 115 from 163.
  Worse yet, as the economy continued to spiral downward, the inflow of dollars slowed, forcing the currency board to restrict the country's money supply even further.
  Unable to accept this reality, Kinsley, like many of the president's other critics, continues to spiral downward into irrationality.
  It starts with the discovery of a man buried alive and spirals downward from there.
  In recent years, he has clung to power as the country's economy spiraled downward and political opposition to his government has grown.
  As Hendrix writes: ‘This is a movie that spirals down and down until it passes the point of no return.’
  As the stock market continues to spiral downward and investor losses mount, mutual fund fees have found a way to continue to rise.
  The alternative is to try to liquidate a trust that will send prices spiralling down elsewhere hitting other bank loans in barbell structures.
  Shares spiralled down more than 75 per cent this morning, valuing the firm, which two years ago was worth £2.5 billion, at around £75m.
  Meanwhile, diplomatic relations between the two nuclear-armed states continue to spiral downward.
  The more you give in to desire the more you desire - and so the wicked vortex spirals down.
  The origin of her compulsive behaviour is the blank space around which the novel circles, as the former private-school girl spirals downward into drug addiction and anorexia.
  There are just so many things that a creative government could do, and they would rather shove their thumbs up their bums and fiddle while Nassau spirals downward.
  In April 1986 it fell to $2.40 and continued spiraling down to $2.01.
  Yet from there, Elvis's life only spirals downward.
  Our times make you wonder if we're spiraling down into the end of time.
  Let's hope that the government fulfills its promise to provide more funding for NHS dental treatment or else I can see that this family's teeth may start spiralling down towards decay and dentures.
  As I write this, I find myself spiralling down into even more unhappiness and depression.
  The problem in our country is not between Tsvangirai and Mugabe, it has now spiralled down to grass-roots level.
  Synonyms
  deteriorate, decline, degenerate, worsen, get worse
  informal go downhill, take a nosedive, go to pot, go to the dogs, hit the skids, go down the toilet, go down the tubes

Derivatives

spirally

adverb ˈspʌɪrəliˈspaɪrəli

The effect is created by spirally curved, inward-pointing needles that twist covetously around the plant's flexible stems - cascading locks on a seemingly restless tree.
Example sentencesExamples
- The woolly mammoth has two distinctive spirally curved tusks up to 3.5 metres long.
- Within 1 hr, the resulting spirally coiled, gelatinous spermatophore has been transferred to the female.
- Pinaceae are Monoecious with small pollen cones and larger seed cones with spirally arranged scales.
- The central awn in A. simpliciflora is prominently spiral-twisted and contorted to 180 degrees versus spreading to deflexed and not conspicuously spirally twisted basally in A. virgata.

spirality

noun-ˈralɪti

Origin

Mid 16th century (as an adjective): from medieval Latin spiralis, from Latin spira 'coil' (see spire²).

Rhymes

viral

Definition of spiral in US English:

spiral

adjectiveˈspaɪrəlˈspīrəl

1Winding in a continuous and gradually widening (or tightening) curve, either around a central point on a flat plane or about an axis so as to form a cone.
a spiral pattern
Example sentencesExamples
- As soon as the tumbler begins turning, a spiral pattern appears as grains of one color wrap around grains of the other color.
- This creates the spiral Damascus pattern and it is forged again to form a billet.
- It was white with a red and blue spiral tie-dye pattern, and had a Yin / Yang symbol at the center.
- The spiral pattern is sufficiently regular that it leads to a numerical parameter characteristic for the species, called its divergence.
- I traced the spiral pattern on one of the rugs with me toe.
- Female tusks, when they do appear, tend to be shorter and cleaner with more tightly wound spiral patterns.
- Mina lowered her eyes to my shirt, tracing the blue spiral pattern with the fingertips of her left hand.
- Hundreds of truckloads of mining refuse were brought in, then planted with 11,000 Finnish pine trees in a complex spiral pattern.
- Place the dough in a greased banitsa pan, starting in the middle and spiralling out, pressing the coils into the spiral shape towards the edge of the pan, baking as above.
- The way in which the spiral patterns of sunflower seeds and pine cones grow is described by the sequence, and it is common for the number of petals on a flower to be a Fibonacci number.
- It was like a pink disk, flat, and inch across, a spiral pattern of tiny dots on its surface.
- If they had a very special request they purchased a spiral coil of incense which was suspended from the ceiling and burned slowly over a whole week.
- Complexity is the study of how complicated systems can generate simple behavior, such as the sustained spiral pattern seen here.
- The large coiled-straw hat forms a spiral pattern above the sharecropper's graying head, a halo earned, but perhaps too little too late.
- The barren land around her was lit, revealing the tents that swirled around in a spiral pattern.
- Down would go a wing, and the plane would enter a spiral spin.
- When the solution is placed as a thin film under stationary conditions, concentric or spiral wave patterns develop in the solution.
- Most of those photos show the orbs to have a spiral pattern inside the orb.
- Arrange all integers in a hexagonal spiral pattern.
- Most crop deformations appear as simple, nearly perfect circles of grain flattened in a spiral pattern.
1. 1.1 Winding in a continuous curve of constant diameter about a central axis, as though along a cylinder; helical.
  Example sentencesExamples
  If you take a look, you will see that, in many cases, as you progress up along a stem, the leaves are located on a spiral path that winds around the stem.
  A round steel newel post supports a spiral oak volute and anchors the balustrade to a wide bottom step.
  She was twisting the spiral cord with her long red nails.
  Helicobacter pylori, a spiral bacterium of the stomach, infects more than half of the world's population.
  The plates were shaped to induce spiral motion in the particles, since accelerating them along a straight track would require an accelerator longer than the laboratory.
  The Comanche had gone into spiral mode, twisting this way and that in a futile attempt to stay airborne.
  In the spring, I took in an exhibit of Frank Gehry models and drawings arrayed along the spiral ramp within the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
  This meant the dogs had to run at different speeds along their spiral paths.
  Circular accelerators move particles along a circular or spiral path in machines that vary in size from less than a few feet to many miles in diameter.
  The male reproductive system contains four pairs of accessory glands, the most prominent of which are the tightly coiled spiral accessory glands.
  Many club mosses have leaves which are attached in a spiral pattern, while in other creeping species the leaves are all oriented in the same plane.
  The unit pictured has a spiral twist, first bent around a big tin can, then a smaller one and then an even smaller one for smooth curves.
  Basically, you twist the developing can in a spiral movement as you invert it.
  At the edge of each floorplate is a spiral atrium, created by ‘twisting’ each successive floor.
  The atoms of natural sugars are all laid out in an asymmetrical manner, having a right-handed spiral twist.
  I will fly counterclockwise around the station in a spiral pattern, starting at the bottom.
  Volvulus classically appears on the upper GI as a spiral corkscrew of the duodenum.
  The gold mounting is decorated with pearling and designed in a spiral pattern that has been heavily chased to give the effect of octopus tentacles.
  They were fleshy and tender like her own arms, but rimmed with spiral corkscrew blades which stretched from wrist to shoulder on each limb, and of course, the hooks.
  Synonyms
  coiled, helical, helix-shaped, corkscrew, curling, winding, twisting, whorled, scrolled
2. 1.2 (of a stairway) constantly turning in one direction as it rises, around a solid or open center.
  Example sentencesExamples
  At the foot of the spiral stairway, they presented Tetra with their star spangled permits.
  She descended the dark spiral stairway, careful not to hit her elbows against the narrow passage.
  The spiral stairwell that circled lazily through each floor was merely inches from the inside of the closet.
  She pushed open the door and instantly headed up the spiral stairs to the third floor, to her room.
  A spiral staircase might be a good choice, as you don't have a lot of room, and a spiral stair will take up less room.
  Anyone climbing the ladder to the loft is suspended above the vertical spiral stairwell - not recommended for those nervous of heights.
  Our first house wasn't huge, but when I was eight we moved to this enormous place in Hampstead, next to Sting, with spiral stairs and marble floors and a back garden like a playing field.
  There are some instances, like the spiral stairwell, I know he would've done something in.
  They made their way down a spiral corridor of stairs.
  Patsy got up thereafter and redressed, put on her makeup and then went downstairs and found the three-page ransom note at the bottom of the spiral stairway.
  Quiet, clean and spare, it led, past a short spiral stairway with a gallery, to a darker room.
  All include a mezzanine level with a wrought-iron spiral stairway leading from a comfortable sitting area to the bedroom above.
  The party fell back; squatting around the spiral stairwell, pointing their weapons in preparation.
  The damage to one of the two great pinnacles that top the East Front is so bad that if you stand in the spiral stairway inside, you can see daylight through joints between the stones.
  Kira rolled her eyes and followed her, up a long spiral stairway.
  Each floor has an oblong chamber with a small room and spiral stair in the wall thickness at the seaward end.
  The three of them walked single file down past the familiar sets of doors and the rows of bunks and again entered the spiral stairwell.
  They found the stairway - a spiral stairway constructed of black marble - almost immediately and started up it.
  I decided to leave our luggage downstairs rather than negotiate the spiral stairway.
  Bahamut proceeded into the enclosed spiral stairwell that would lead them to the peak of the mountain.
3. 1.3Medicine (of a fracture) curving around a long bone lengthwise.
  Example sentencesExamples
  A throwing fracture is a spiral fracture of the shaft of the humerus which is caused by the high torque on the arm during the throw.
  Transverse fractures are often harder to align and immobilise than apparently more serious oblique or spiral fractures.
  Recently he was forced to take an extended break to recover from a spiral fracture to his fibula, which ended up requiring multiple surgeries.
  Luckily, the break was in a spiral fracture and I didn't need any plates or screws, so they just slapped a cast on my leg, gave me some Motrin, and I was on my way.
  The 26-year-old received a spiral fracture of the right leg last May, but is poised to start the final surge back to full fitness next week.
4. 1.4
  a spiral notebook
  short for spiral-bound
  Example sentencesExamples
  But, now, she was scrawling badly jumbled words in an old spiral notebook that she rarely ever used.
  He carried a large spiral notebook under his left arm.
  I keep these spiral notebooks, and everyday I write down the date and start a new page.
  As a compact, portable device, the Tablet PC, which is about the size of a typical spiral notebook, is said to add a new dimension to the classroom.
  People behind these spiral notebooks with glossy finishing and other stationery items are mentally challenged children.
  In English we all get a spiral notebook we're to write in.
  I closed my spiral notebook and stuffed it into my bag.
  ‘We write in a spiral notebook, and when we need to name a foal we refer to it for ideas,’ Charles said.
  A small wooden desk, bearing a blue ceramic lamp and a spiral notebook, crouched bowlegged in one corner.
  To complement such play, a simple recipe book with large numbers, words, and pictures can be made out of a spiral notebook with laminated pages.
  For some reason the girl closed herself off even more, keeping to her spiral notebook and taking in what the teachers had to say.
  When I sat down at my desk, I pulled out my spiral notebook.
  Kerrie reached down at her side and picked up a spiral notebook.
  The truth was locked up in the confines of my spiral notebook.
  In either case, the child's responses may be recorded as a check on sticky labels, Post-it pads, or in a small spiral notebook.
  For several months now I've been carrying around a little pocket-size spiral notebook in my jacket.
  Tiara snatched a spiral notebook out of Erik's hand.
  I write in spiral notebooks, the plain, drugstore kind.
  I always carry a small spiral notebook in my shirt pocket and, more recently, a small electronic memo recorder, to save ideas and images for future use.

nounˈspaɪrəlˈspīrəl

1A spiral curve, shape, or pattern.
he spotted a spiral of smoke
Example sentencesExamples
- In ever-more-abstracted form and diverse media, these elemental shapes, such as spirals, labyrinths, lozenges, and goddesses, recurred in her work.
- Angeli's many works were on infinitesimals and he used them to study spirals, parabolas and hyperbolas.
- Fowler's work consists of repetitive handwritten words, scribed on paper in spirals and other patterns.
- Small spiral shaped gills are found, which pick up oxygen from the water.
- The designs are sometimes simply spirals or other patterns, but they might also be scenes from fairy tales or of famous people or places.
- Although dubbed ‘Gherkin,’ the spiral in its shape more resembles a pinecone.
- For another example from the botanical world, if you look at a sunflower you will see a beautiful pattern of two spirals, one running clockwise, the other counterclockwise.
- We show elementary hand-drawn patterns such as spirals and gold bands.
- It has a top speed of fifty five miles per hour and riders will experience spirals, corkscrews, a cobra roll, and overbanked curves.
- It is useful to observe the patient drinking from a glass, writing, or drawing a rhythmic pattern such as a spiral.
- However, I do remember clearly the double spiral (figure-of-eight) shape.
- That is why that is such an important moment, not because the thing was shaped like two spirals - that's just aesthetically pleasing - but because the world changed on that day.
- Afterwards, he paced around in his own form, then as deer-beast, and then returned to his true shape to fly in spirals above the temporary camp.
- On the bare floorboards was a design, a twisting pattern of spirals and waves that was mesmerising.
- Deeply engraved in each structure was a pattern of wings and spirals, that almost resembled a bird flying towards the ceiling.
- She pulled out something that looked to be a key, but it was made of crystal, and the end of it curved into a spiral.
- In it he describes very clearly the distinctive spiral shaped organisms which were later identified as being part of the helicobacter family.
- Headdresses, like the African one pictured in this article, show one way in which people have used spirals based on shapes found in Nature for headdresses.
- For more than three centuries botanists and mathematicians have marveled at the complex and beautiful spiral patterns that form as plants develop.
- The pattern can be spied in everything from the spirals of sea shells to the shape of pine cones.
Synonyms
coil, helix, curl, corkscrew, twist, gyre, whorl, scroll, curlicue, convolution
1. 1.1 A spiral spring.
  Example sentencesExamples
  Much of it is fantastically shaped, topiarised into spirals, balls, hens, even buxom elephants.
  Continue rotating the triangles counterclockwise until they have formed a complete spiral.
  The dominant allele dictates right-handedness - and a clockwise hair spiral.
  The Gherkin is a spiral of darkened bands arcing round the panes at the top catching the sun, the rest of the building appearing almost translucent.
  In between each spiral was a beautifully painted butterfly.
  Cut out and hang spirals of shiny paper, several toys or sparkly paper shapes on a coat hanger.
  Continue twisting your hair loosely to form a spiral on top of your head.
  Behind the receptionist - whose dais is made of glowing plastic blocks, there is a wall with an undulating psychedelic orange spiral.
  It was decorated with both silver and gold curves and spirals in perfect balance.
  I roll over so many times in the night that it would be a big twisted spiral around my waist by morning.
  The 3D curves are incorporated into a wire part, and the curve elements are straight lines, arcs, circles, spline curves, spirals and curves on surfaces.
  In an attempt to avoid the tell-tale pyramid shape, spirals, boxes and straight lines are used.
  Their roots, after centuries of carefully controlled growth, curled to form circles and spirals.
  A questing hand raised to her hair, stopping dead when fingers met a mass of stylized hair curled into spirals.
  They're shaped like short rods, spheres or spirals.
  After shaping the spirals, he teased them with a comb for height and fullness.
  The costumes, made up of spirals, triangles, and cones, were constructed of padded cloth and papier-maché and were coated with metallic paint.
  Each work comprises geometric figures; circles, half-circles, spirals and straight or curved lines.
  A spider creates its sticky orb following a genetically determined recipe for laying out the various radii and spirals of the web.
  Ask somewhat what a spiral is, for example, and they will almost inevitably mimic the shape of a spiral with their hands.
2. 1.2Astronomy
  short for spiral galaxy
  Example sentencesExamples
  Both galaxies are spirals of roughly the same age, with stars strewn across flattened disks of roughly the same size, more than 100,000 light-years across.
  Galaxies and nebulae are often enormous spirals floating in outer space.
  Starbirth regions exist in most galaxies, particularly in spirals, and are obvious as clouds of predominantly hydrogen gas call H II regions.
  Hubble's tuning fork distinguishes ‘normal’ spiral galaxies from spirals that show a bar across the center.
2A progressive rise or fall of prices, wages, etc., each responding to an upward or downward stimulus provided by a previous one.
an inflationary spiral
Example sentencesExamples
- As for property prices, there is no end to their upward spiral in sight.
- The output reductions would be made with a view to halting the downward spiral of DRAM prices, itself caused by supply vastly outweighing demand.
- Economists said the increase was higher than had been expected and presented a danger that the economy would become caught up in a spiral of higher wage demands and higher prices.
- Why work when we can all borrow against an ever upward spiral of house prices?
- The residents are quite rightly convinced it will blight the area and lead to increased crime and a downward spiral of house prices.
- Nesc says inflation must be tackled to avoid a wage price spiral becoming embedded in the economy.
- Meritz also believes that the major memory producers will soon begin to cut back on production in a bid to prevent the downward spiral of DRAM prices.
- The company's share price, already in a downward spiral, continued its fall and has now lost half its value in the past year and a half.
- Carrefour and Casino have shown disappointing growth since the French government demanded a year ago that the country's food retailers reverse the upward spiral of prices.
- There would be a downward spiral of prices, but no actual increase in market share for any of the firms involved.
- Until recently, the Fed was worried that the nation would fall into deflation - a downward spiral of prices.
- He also said the Japanese economy is not about to fall into a deflationary spiral under which price falls and economic contraction take place simultaneously.
- But if inflation is negative, that strategy won't work, and the economy could fall into a downward spiral.
- It is no less important to ensure that costlier fuel does not give rise to an excessive inflationary spiral as regards the prices of other goods and services.
- Unfortunately, the downward spiral in price would be a direct consequence of any further reduction in tariff protection.
- Price pressure could lead to a wage spiral while dangerously high government spending also poses very real dangers down the line, he warned.
- Manufacturers also reported pressure from rising input costs, as oil prices continued their upward spiral.
- This is stuff that can put us on the front page of The Wall Street Journal and our share price in a downward spiral.
- It's not workers caught in downward wage spirals.
- As a result, there was an upward spiral in the share price of GTB, which helped it achieve a better swap ratio in the merger.
Synonyms
growth, rise, enlargement, expansion, extension, multiplication, elevation, swelling, inflation
1. 2.1 A process of deterioration through the continuous increase or decrease of a specified feature.
  a downward spiral of sex and drink
  Example sentencesExamples
  Over the next few years, she would hear about him through her brother, about his remarriage, his downward spiral, his self-destruction.
  The downward spiral on local business will only get worse, they fear.
  The problem is how easy it is for an enjoyable night to slide into a downward spiral of chasing losses and going on tilt.
  It was a gradual process that progressed through a downward spiral of self destruction.
  Players were sold to try to take up some of the slack, increasing the spiral of disaster.
  The highest rates of sexual infection and unwanted pregnancy are in people from deprived backgrounds further increasing the spiral of decline into poverty and ill health.
  Since you broke up she's embarked on a downward spiral of dating increasingly unattractive men and it all makes for quite desperate reading.
  Nick Duerden's second novel studies the spiral of self destructiveness, and how some can fail over and over again yet still come out winning.
  This went on to cause no end of grief for her Mum and a downward spiral of self-destruction for this confused young teen.
  Or else he will become one more voice in the wilderness in a country determined to go on a downward spiral of social and ecological self-destruction.
  There is a continuous downward spiral of living conditions for the majority of the population.
  Bender gets hooked on electricity, and Fry and the gang worry that he's on a downward spiral toward self-destruction.
  Chazan described the Israeli-Palestinian situation as a mess for the past four years and two months - a cycle of violence in a deteriorating spiral.
  The bulk of the first half of the film concerns Jack Magnus's introduction to drugs and his downward spiral into self-destructive addiction.
  ‘I'm a great optimist, but we're now caught in a downward spiral, economically and socially,’ he said.
  His term also saw a further increase in the spiral of violence, increasingly carried out by actors independent of the state.
  This loss sends the relationship into a downward spiral, leading to increased bickering and fighting, and to the collapse of the union.
  The huge work pressure the tutorial system creates, can lead students into a downward spiral of self-deprecation and loss of confidence.
  The collapse of the property bubble and the Asian financial crisis in 1997 sent the city into a downward spiral of job losses and deflation.
  Datalex continued its downward spiral after reporting a larger than expected second-quarter loss last week.
3American Football
A pass or kick that moves smoothly through the air while spinning on its long axis.
Example sentencesExamples
- It takes a rotation or two to get the center started into a smooth spiral.
- He rarely has thrown passes on target; even fewer have been spirals.
- Kilmer was the Redskins' paunchy quarterback who never mastered the spiral but, at 36, could still move a team.
- The axis of the spiral seems small and the orbit fixed.

verbˈspaɪrəlˈspīrəl

1no object, with adverbial of direction Move in a spiral course.
a wisp of smoke spiraled up from the trees
Example sentencesExamples
- After being cooped up in those constricting nests for months, here they were climbing, diving, spiraling and chattering feverishly, becoming better aeronauts by the minute.
- Jane stared down at the water, the fish spiralling, swimming, moving with the current.
- Faint smoke spiraled off the battery connections as they heated up.
- Sammy tapped her thumb furiously on the kick button, blocked Jack's move, and sent the character spiraling into the air.
- Ivan started climbing the staircase that spiraled up to the payload section and gangway.
- In the clear blue sky above, four open-billed storks had a got a thermal and were spiralling up, Icaris-like, on motionless wings, to an unknown destination.
- Hitting the far wall, he slipped down to the floor, escaping the rest of Shanza's attack, which roared through the obstacle to spiral out of the Temple and shoot into the sky.
- When she looked around, she saw smoke spiraling from Charybdis.
- A cloud was slowly spiraling towards the sun and they retreated, moving to the edge of the forest, watching the skeletons appear one by one.
- The missiles that we shot just spiraled randomly after a second or two after being shot.
- White smoke must soon spiral up from Smith Square.
- The butterflies leapt into flight, spiraling up into the sunlight, up and up until Joshua could no longer see them.
- The dance troupe recounts the death of gods - from the polluted air and the smoke spiraling up from sacrifices made in their honour.
- A huge blaze at an industrial park in Leeds last night sent plumes of black smoke spiralling nearly 2,000 ft into the air.
- Soon enough, our intrepid reporter hero realizes that, due to some nuclear explosion experimentation, the earth has been thrust out of its orbit and is now spiralling towards the sun.
- Moss clung to the rocks and ivy climbed tirelessly, spiralling around the trees.
- The blast ripped through three storeys of the building and started a fire which sent smoke spiralling through the twin towers.
Synonyms
coil, wind, twirl, swirl, twist, wreathe, snake, gyrate
1. 1.1with object and adverbial Cause to have a spiral shape or follow a spiral course.
  spiral the bandage around the injured limb
  Example sentencesExamples
  Digital modification stands in for genetic, and so the animals are lengthened, spiralled or moved across the picture plane as if a magnetic force - an exterior one - operated.
  Twist the rod until the hair section is spiralled around it (the barrel should be held vertically, so the top is pointing up).
  Synonyms
  coil, wind, twirl, swirl, twist, wreathe, snake, gyrate
2no object Show a continuous and dramatic increase.
inflation continued to spiral
Example sentencesExamples
- Houses gone out of people's reach, rents spiralling, inadequate hospital services, too few places for children at risk - it's all there under the cover of affluence.
- Unemployment soared, thousands emigrated and the national debt spiralled out of control.
- The stress with trying to move house has spiralled out of all control and doesn't look like it's going to reduce in the near future.
- A growing compensation culture is being blamed by councillors in Leeds for the city's spiralling legal bill which has reached £22m.
- But the cost of the equipment they need, such as ropes, flares and the transmitters that detect the position of avalanche victims, is spiralling beyond the teams' ability to raise cash.
- ‘The problem is further exacerbated by spiralling operational cost and high turnover of staff,’ Roopnarine said.
- All the words they use are true: prices are soaring, spiralling, skyrocketing.
- Shortages for low-income Torontonians were once again rampant, rents were spiraling and evictions were increasing.
- Policing the event, diverting the traffic and setting up and marshalling the course would see the costs spiralling.
- I don't care enough about furniture, fast moving consumer goods, spiralling debt, bad public transport, grumpy angry faces.
- Tuition fees and the cost of living can lead to spiralling debts, or long hours in dead-end jobs taken to make ends meet.
- The Northern Ireland drug chief, Jo Daykin, yesterday said cannabis use there could spiral following the move.
- It is also around four times the original estimate, and as costs spiralled, Congress moved to scrap the project in its entirety.
- Regulation of the language school sector is needed urgently to combat spiralling levels of visa fraud involving thousands of individuals, a senior Garda has warned.
- The downward move came as fears eased that the hostage standoff could spiral out of control.
- Above any other area in the county the people of Ballon have faced tragedy after tragedy as the carnage on their local roads spirals to epidemic proportions.
- As tensions have spiraled between Pyongyang and the US, Anti-American sentiment has exploded in South Korea.
- He said this led to spiralling levels of thuggishness, vandalism and violent crime when revellers spilled on to the streets at closing time, especially on Friday and Saturday nights.
- But of course the story has to spiral out of control ending in a ridiculous scene involving the social worker who has been assigned to Denise and RJ's case.
Synonyms
soar, shoot up, rocket, increase rapidly, rise rapidly, leap up, escalate, climb, mount
1. 2.1spiral down/downward Decrease or deteriorate continuously.
  he expects the figures to spiral down further
  Example sentencesExamples
  There are just so many things that a creative government could do, and they would rather shove their thumbs up their bums and fiddle while Nassau spirals downward.
  As Hendrix writes: ‘This is a movie that spirals down and down until it passes the point of no return.’
  The alternative is to try to liquidate a trust that will send prices spiralling down elsewhere hitting other bank loans in barbell structures.
  Yet from there, Elvis's life only spirals downward.
  Nationally, there was also some good news with a 29 per cent drop, with the figure for the month spiralling down to 115 from 163.
  In April 1986 it fell to $2.40 and continued spiraling down to $2.01.
  Unable to accept this reality, Kinsley, like many of the president's other critics, continues to spiral downward into irrationality.
  In recent years, he has clung to power as the country's economy spiraled downward and political opposition to his government has grown.
  It starts with the discovery of a man buried alive and spirals downward from there.
  Meanwhile, diplomatic relations between the two nuclear-armed states continue to spiral downward.
  Worse yet, as the economy continued to spiral downward, the inflow of dollars slowed, forcing the currency board to restrict the country's money supply even further.
  Let's hope that the government fulfills its promise to provide more funding for NHS dental treatment or else I can see that this family's teeth may start spiralling down towards decay and dentures.
  As I write this, I find myself spiralling down into even more unhappiness and depression.
  As the stock market continues to spiral downward and investor losses mount, mutual fund fees have found a way to continue to rise.
  Our times make you wonder if we're spiraling down into the end of time.
  The neoliberal ‘medicine’ made the sickness worse: unemployment rocketed, living standards spiralled downwards.
  Shares spiralled down more than 75 per cent this morning, valuing the firm, which two years ago was worth £2.5 billion, at around £75m.
  The origin of her compulsive behaviour is the blank space around which the novel circles, as the former private-school girl spirals downward into drug addiction and anorexia.
  The problem in our country is not between Tsvangirai and Mugabe, it has now spiralled down to grass-roots level.
  The more you give in to desire the more you desire - and so the wicked vortex spirals down.
  Synonyms
  deteriorate, decline, degenerate, worsen, get worse

Origin

Mid 16th century (as an adjective): from medieval Latin spiralis, from Latin spira ‘coil’ (see spire).

单词	spiral
释义	Definition of spiral in English: spiral adjective ˈspʌɪr(ə)lˈspaɪrəl 1Winding in a continuous and gradually widening (or tightening) curve, either round a central point on a flat plane or about an axis so as to form a cone. a spiral pattern Example sentencesExamples It was white with a red and blue spiral tie-dye pattern, and had a Yin / Yang symbol at the center. Most of those photos show the orbs to have a spiral pattern inside the orb. Place the dough in a greased banitsa pan, starting in the middle and spiralling out, pressing the coils into the spiral shape towards the edge of the pan, baking as above. If they had a very special request they purchased a spiral coil of incense which was suspended from the ceiling and burned slowly over a whole week. The way in which the spiral patterns of sunflower seeds and pine cones grow is described by the sequence, and it is common for the number of petals on a flower to be a Fibonacci number. Female tusks, when they do appear, tend to be shorter and cleaner with more tightly wound spiral patterns. The barren land around her was lit, revealing the tents that swirled around in a spiral pattern. As soon as the tumbler begins turning, a spiral pattern appears as grains of one color wrap around grains of the other color. When the solution is placed as a thin film under stationary conditions, concentric or spiral wave patterns develop in the solution. Complexity is the study of how complicated systems can generate simple behavior, such as the sustained spiral pattern seen here. It was like a pink disk, flat, and inch across, a spiral pattern of tiny dots on its surface. The large coiled-straw hat forms a spiral pattern above the sharecropper's graying head, a halo earned, but perhaps too little too late. Down would go a wing, and the plane would enter a spiral spin. The spiral pattern is sufficiently regular that it leads to a numerical parameter characteristic for the species, called its divergence. Mina lowered her eyes to my shirt, tracing the blue spiral pattern with the fingertips of her left hand. Arrange all integers in a hexagonal spiral pattern. This creates the spiral Damascus pattern and it is forged again to form a billet. I traced the spiral pattern on one of the rugs with me toe. Hundreds of truckloads of mining refuse were brought in, then planted with 11,000 Finnish pine trees in a complex spiral pattern. Most crop deformations appear as simple, nearly perfect circles of grain flattened in a spiral pattern. 1.1 Winding in a continuous curve of constant diameter about a central axis, as though along a cylinder; helical. Example sentencesExamples A round steel newel post supports a spiral oak volute and anchors the balustrade to a wide bottom step. The gold mounting is decorated with pearling and designed in a spiral pattern that has been heavily chased to give the effect of octopus tentacles. Helicobacter pylori, a spiral bacterium of the stomach, infects more than half of the world's population. The atoms of natural sugars are all laid out in an asymmetrical manner, having a right-handed spiral twist. The unit pictured has a spiral twist, first bent around a big tin can, then a smaller one and then an even smaller one for smooth curves. Circular accelerators move particles along a circular or spiral path in machines that vary in size from less than a few feet to many miles in diameter. In the spring, I took in an exhibit of Frank Gehry models and drawings arrayed along the spiral ramp within the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Volvulus classically appears on the upper GI as a spiral corkscrew of the duodenum. They were fleshy and tender like her own arms, but rimmed with spiral corkscrew blades which stretched from wrist to shoulder on each limb, and of course, the hooks. Basically, you twist the developing can in a spiral movement as you invert it. I will fly counterclockwise around the station in a spiral pattern, starting at the bottom. If you take a look, you will see that, in many cases, as you progress up along a stem, the leaves are located on a spiral path that winds around the stem. At the edge of each floorplate is a spiral atrium, created by ‘twisting’ each successive floor. The plates were shaped to induce spiral motion in the particles, since accelerating them along a straight track would require an accelerator longer than the laboratory. Many club mosses have leaves which are attached in a spiral pattern, while in other creeping species the leaves are all oriented in the same plane. This meant the dogs had to run at different speeds along their spiral paths. She was twisting the spiral cord with her long red nails. The Comanche had gone into spiral mode, twisting this way and that in a futile attempt to stay airborne. The male reproductive system contains four pairs of accessory glands, the most prominent of which are the tightly coiled spiral accessory glands. Synonyms coiled, helical, helix-shaped, corkscrew, curling, winding, twisting, whorled, scrolled technical cochlear, cochleate, voluted, helicoid, helicoidal 1.2 (of a stairway) constantly turning in one direction as it rises, round a solid or open centre. a wrought-iron spiral staircase Example sentencesExamples They made their way down a spiral corridor of stairs. Our first house wasn't huge, but when I was eight we moved to this enormous place in Hampstead, next to Sting, with spiral stairs and marble floors and a back garden like a playing field. The party fell back; squatting around the spiral stairwell, pointing their weapons in preparation. Kira rolled her eyes and followed her, up a long spiral stairway. Patsy got up thereafter and redressed, put on her makeup and then went downstairs and found the three-page ransom note at the bottom of the spiral stairway. Each floor has an oblong chamber with a small room and spiral stair in the wall thickness at the seaward end. Anyone climbing the ladder to the loft is suspended above the vertical spiral stairwell - not recommended for those nervous of heights. A spiral staircase might be a good choice, as you don't have a lot of room, and a spiral stair will take up less room. They found the stairway - a spiral stairway constructed of black marble - almost immediately and started up it. At the foot of the spiral stairway, they presented Tetra with their star spangled permits. The damage to one of the two great pinnacles that top the East Front is so bad that if you stand in the spiral stairway inside, you can see daylight through joints between the stones. She pushed open the door and instantly headed up the spiral stairs to the third floor, to her room. The spiral stairwell that circled lazily through each floor was merely inches from the inside of the closet. All include a mezzanine level with a wrought-iron spiral stairway leading from a comfortable sitting area to the bedroom above. She descended the dark spiral stairway, careful not to hit her elbows against the narrow passage. There are some instances, like the spiral stairwell, I know he would've done something in. Bahamut proceeded into the enclosed spiral stairwell that would lead them to the peak of the mountain. Quiet, clean and spare, it led, past a short spiral stairway with a gallery, to a darker room. I decided to leave our luggage downstairs rather than negotiate the spiral stairway. The three of them walked single file down past the familiar sets of doors and the rows of bunks and again entered the spiral stairwell. 1.3Medicine (of a fracture) curving round a long bone lengthwise. Example sentencesExamples Luckily, the break was in a spiral fracture and I didn't need any plates or screws, so they just slapped a cast on my leg, gave me some Motrin, and I was on my way. A throwing fracture is a spiral fracture of the shaft of the humerus which is caused by the high torque on the arm during the throw. Recently he was forced to take an extended break to recover from a spiral fracture to his fibula, which ended up requiring multiple surgeries. The 26-year-old received a spiral fracture of the right leg last May, but is poised to start the final surge back to full fitness next week. Transverse fractures are often harder to align and immobilise than apparently more serious oblique or spiral fractures. 1.4 a spiral notebook short for spiral-bound Example sentencesExamples I keep these spiral notebooks, and everyday I write down the date and start a new page. Tiara snatched a spiral notebook out of Erik's hand. I always carry a small spiral notebook in my shirt pocket and, more recently, a small electronic memo recorder, to save ideas and images for future use. In either case, the child's responses may be recorded as a check on sticky labels, Post-it pads, or in a small spiral notebook. A small wooden desk, bearing a blue ceramic lamp and a spiral notebook, crouched bowlegged in one corner. For some reason the girl closed herself off even more, keeping to her spiral notebook and taking in what the teachers had to say. The truth was locked up in the confines of my spiral notebook. In English we all get a spiral notebook we're to write in. But, now, she was scrawling badly jumbled words in an old spiral notebook that she rarely ever used. He carried a large spiral notebook under his left arm. ‘We write in a spiral notebook, and when we need to name a foal we refer to it for ideas,’ Charles said. Kerrie reached down at her side and picked up a spiral notebook. I write in spiral notebooks, the plain, drugstore kind. I closed my spiral notebook and stuffed it into my bag. To complement such play, a simple recipe book with large numbers, words, and pictures can be made out of a spiral notebook with laminated pages. As a compact, portable device, the Tablet PC, which is about the size of a typical spiral notebook, is said to add a new dimension to the classroom. When I sat down at my desk, I pulled out my spiral notebook. For several months now I've been carrying around a little pocket-size spiral notebook in my jacket. People behind these spiral notebooks with glossy finishing and other stationery items are mentally challenged children. nounPlural spirals ˈspʌɪr(ə)lˈspaɪrəl 1A spiral curve, shape, pattern, or object. a spiral of smoke Example sentencesExamples It is useful to observe the patient drinking from a glass, writing, or drawing a rhythmic pattern such as a spiral. Angeli's many works were on infinitesimals and he used them to study spirals, parabolas and hyperbolas. For more than three centuries botanists and mathematicians have marveled at the complex and beautiful spiral patterns that form as plants develop. That is why that is such an important moment, not because the thing was shaped like two spirals - that's just aesthetically pleasing - but because the world changed on that day. She pulled out something that looked to be a key, but it was made of crystal, and the end of it curved into a spiral. For another example from the botanical world, if you look at a sunflower you will see a beautiful pattern of two spirals, one running clockwise, the other counterclockwise. The designs are sometimes simply spirals or other patterns, but they might also be scenes from fairy tales or of famous people or places. Headdresses, like the African one pictured in this article, show one way in which people have used spirals based on shapes found in Nature for headdresses. On the bare floorboards was a design, a twisting pattern of spirals and waves that was mesmerising. In ever-more-abstracted form and diverse media, these elemental shapes, such as spirals, labyrinths, lozenges, and goddesses, recurred in her work. Although dubbed ‘Gherkin,’ the spiral in its shape more resembles a pinecone. We show elementary hand-drawn patterns such as spirals and gold bands. Afterwards, he paced around in his own form, then as deer-beast, and then returned to his true shape to fly in spirals above the temporary camp. Fowler's work consists of repetitive handwritten words, scribed on paper in spirals and other patterns. It has a top speed of fifty five miles per hour and riders will experience spirals, corkscrews, a cobra roll, and overbanked curves. In it he describes very clearly the distinctive spiral shaped organisms which were later identified as being part of the helicobacter family. However, I do remember clearly the double spiral (figure-of-eight) shape. Small spiral shaped gills are found, which pick up oxygen from the water. Deeply engraved in each structure was a pattern of wings and spirals, that almost resembled a bird flying towards the ceiling. The pattern can be spied in everything from the spirals of sea shells to the shape of pine cones. Synonyms coil, helix, curl, corkscrew, twist, gyre, whorl, scroll, curlicue, convolution technical volute, volution 1.1Astronomy short for spiral galaxy Example sentencesExamples Hubble's tuning fork distinguishes ‘normal’ spiral galaxies from spirals that show a bar across the center. Galaxies and nebulae are often enormous spirals floating in outer space. Both galaxies are spirals of roughly the same age, with stars strewn across flattened disks of roughly the same size, more than 100,000 light-years across. Starbirth regions exist in most galaxies, particularly in spirals, and are obvious as clouds of predominantly hydrogen gas call H II regions. 2A progressive rise or fall of prices, wages, etc., each responding to an upward or downward stimulus provided by a previous one. an inflationary spiral Example sentencesExamples Manufacturers also reported pressure from rising input costs, as oil prices continued their upward spiral. Meritz also believes that the major memory producers will soon begin to cut back on production in a bid to prevent the downward spiral of DRAM prices. Why work when we can all borrow against an ever upward spiral of house prices? Economists said the increase was higher than had been expected and presented a danger that the economy would become caught up in a spiral of higher wage demands and higher prices. Carrefour and Casino have shown disappointing growth since the French government demanded a year ago that the country's food retailers reverse the upward spiral of prices. As a result, there was an upward spiral in the share price of GTB, which helped it achieve a better swap ratio in the merger. It's not workers caught in downward wage spirals. The output reductions would be made with a view to halting the downward spiral of DRAM prices, itself caused by supply vastly outweighing demand. He also said the Japanese economy is not about to fall into a deflationary spiral under which price falls and economic contraction take place simultaneously. But if inflation is negative, that strategy won't work, and the economy could fall into a downward spiral. This is stuff that can put us on the front page of The Wall Street Journal and our share price in a downward spiral. Nesc says inflation must be tackled to avoid a wage price spiral becoming embedded in the economy. It is no less important to ensure that costlier fuel does not give rise to an excessive inflationary spiral as regards the prices of other goods and services. There would be a downward spiral of prices, but no actual increase in market share for any of the firms involved. Until recently, the Fed was worried that the nation would fall into deflation - a downward spiral of prices. The company's share price, already in a downward spiral, continued its fall and has now lost half its value in the past year and a half. The residents are quite rightly convinced it will blight the area and lead to increased crime and a downward spiral of house prices. As for property prices, there is no end to their upward spiral in sight. Price pressure could lead to a wage spiral while dangerously high government spending also poses very real dangers down the line, he warned. Unfortunately, the downward spiral in price would be a direct consequence of any further reduction in tariff protection. Synonyms growth, rise, enlargement, expansion, extension, multiplication, elevation, swelling, inflation 2.1 A process of deterioration through the continuous increase or decrease of a specified feature. this spiral of deprivation and environmental degradation Example sentencesExamples Chazan described the Israeli-Palestinian situation as a mess for the past four years and two months - a cycle of violence in a deteriorating spiral. Since you broke up she's embarked on a downward spiral of dating increasingly unattractive men and it all makes for quite desperate reading. There is a continuous downward spiral of living conditions for the majority of the population. The downward spiral on local business will only get worse, they fear. The highest rates of sexual infection and unwanted pregnancy are in people from deprived backgrounds further increasing the spiral of decline into poverty and ill health. The huge work pressure the tutorial system creates, can lead students into a downward spiral of self-deprecation and loss of confidence. Players were sold to try to take up some of the slack, increasing the spiral of disaster. The bulk of the first half of the film concerns Jack Magnus's introduction to drugs and his downward spiral into self-destructive addiction. Nick Duerden's second novel studies the spiral of self destructiveness, and how some can fail over and over again yet still come out winning. Bender gets hooked on electricity, and Fry and the gang worry that he's on a downward spiral toward self-destruction. Or else he will become one more voice in the wilderness in a country determined to go on a downward spiral of social and ecological self-destruction. This loss sends the relationship into a downward spiral, leading to increased bickering and fighting, and to the collapse of the union. ‘I'm a great optimist, but we're now caught in a downward spiral, economically and socially,’ he said. This went on to cause no end of grief for her Mum and a downward spiral of self-destruction for this confused young teen. The problem is how easy it is for an enjoyable night to slide into a downward spiral of chasing losses and going on tilt. His term also saw a further increase in the spiral of violence, increasingly carried out by actors independent of the state. It was a gradual process that progressed through a downward spiral of self destruction. The collapse of the property bubble and the Asian financial crisis in 1997 sent the city into a downward spiral of job losses and deflation. Datalex continued its downward spiral after reporting a larger than expected second-quarter loss last week. Over the next few years, she would hear about him through her brother, about his remarriage, his downward spiral, his self-destruction. verbspirals, spiralling, spiralled, spiraling, spiraled ˈspʌɪr(ə)lˈspaɪrəl 1no object, with adverbial of direction Move in a spiral course. a wisp of smoke spiralled up from the trees Example sentencesExamples Faint smoke spiraled off the battery connections as they heated up. A huge blaze at an industrial park in Leeds last night sent plumes of black smoke spiralling nearly 2,000 ft into the air. Ivan started climbing the staircase that spiraled up to the payload section and gangway. In the clear blue sky above, four open-billed storks had a got a thermal and were spiralling up, Icaris-like, on motionless wings, to an unknown destination. After being cooped up in those constricting nests for months, here they were climbing, diving, spiraling and chattering feverishly, becoming better aeronauts by the minute. Hitting the far wall, he slipped down to the floor, escaping the rest of Shanza's attack, which roared through the obstacle to spiral out of the Temple and shoot into the sky. Sammy tapped her thumb furiously on the kick button, blocked Jack's move, and sent the character spiraling into the air. A cloud was slowly spiraling towards the sun and they retreated, moving to the edge of the forest, watching the skeletons appear one by one. Jane stared down at the water, the fish spiralling, swimming, moving with the current. The dance troupe recounts the death of gods - from the polluted air and the smoke spiraling up from sacrifices made in their honour. The butterflies leapt into flight, spiraling up into the sunlight, up and up until Joshua could no longer see them. Moss clung to the rocks and ivy climbed tirelessly, spiralling around the trees. White smoke must soon spiral up from Smith Square. The blast ripped through three storeys of the building and started a fire which sent smoke spiralling through the twin towers. When she looked around, she saw smoke spiraling from Charybdis. Soon enough, our intrepid reporter hero realizes that, due to some nuclear explosion experimentation, the earth has been thrust out of its orbit and is now spiralling towards the sun. The missiles that we shot just spiraled randomly after a second or two after being shot. Synonyms coil, wind, twirl, swirl, twist, wreathe, snake, gyrate 1.1with object and adverbial Cause to have a spiral shape or follow a spiral course. spiral the bandage round the limb Example sentencesExamples Twist the rod until the hair section is spiralled around it (the barrel should be held vertically, so the top is pointing up). Digital modification stands in for genetic, and so the animals are lengthened, spiralled or moved across the picture plane as if a magnetic force - an exterior one - operated. Synonyms coil, wind, twirl, swirl, twist, wreathe, snake, gyrate 2no object Show a continuous and dramatic increase. inflation continued to spiral Example sentencesExamples All the words they use are true: prices are soaring, spiralling, skyrocketing. The stress with trying to move house has spiralled out of all control and doesn't look like it's going to reduce in the near future. Unemployment soared, thousands emigrated and the national debt spiralled out of control. The downward move came as fears eased that the hostage standoff could spiral out of control. Regulation of the language school sector is needed urgently to combat spiralling levels of visa fraud involving thousands of individuals, a senior Garda has warned. The Northern Ireland drug chief, Jo Daykin, yesterday said cannabis use there could spiral following the move. Tuition fees and the cost of living can lead to spiralling debts, or long hours in dead-end jobs taken to make ends meet. Houses gone out of people's reach, rents spiralling, inadequate hospital services, too few places for children at risk - it's all there under the cover of affluence. I don't care enough about furniture, fast moving consumer goods, spiralling debt, bad public transport, grumpy angry faces. But of course the story has to spiral out of control ending in a ridiculous scene involving the social worker who has been assigned to Denise and RJ's case. Policing the event, diverting the traffic and setting up and marshalling the course would see the costs spiralling. As tensions have spiraled between Pyongyang and the US, Anti-American sentiment has exploded in South Korea. Shortages for low-income Torontonians were once again rampant, rents were spiraling and evictions were increasing. It is also around four times the original estimate, and as costs spiralled, Congress moved to scrap the project in its entirety. He said this led to spiralling levels of thuggishness, vandalism and violent crime when revellers spilled on to the streets at closing time, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. A growing compensation culture is being blamed by councillors in Leeds for the city's spiralling legal bill which has reached £22m. Above any other area in the county the people of Ballon have faced tragedy after tragedy as the carnage on their local roads spirals to epidemic proportions. ‘The problem is further exacerbated by spiralling operational cost and high turnover of staff,’ Roopnarine said. But the cost of the equipment they need, such as ropes, flares and the transmitters that detect the position of avalanche victims, is spiralling beyond the teams' ability to raise cash. Synonyms soar, shoot up, rocket, increase rapidly, rise rapidly, leap up, escalate, climb, mount informal skyrocket, go through the ceiling, go through the roof 2.1spiral down/downward Decrease or deteriorate continuously. he expects the figures to spiral down further Example sentencesExamples The neoliberal ‘medicine’ made the sickness worse: unemployment rocketed, living standards spiralled downwards. Nationally, there was also some good news with a 29 per cent drop, with the figure for the month spiralling down to 115 from 163. Worse yet, as the economy continued to spiral downward, the inflow of dollars slowed, forcing the currency board to restrict the country's money supply even further. Unable to accept this reality, Kinsley, like many of the president's other critics, continues to spiral downward into irrationality. It starts with the discovery of a man buried alive and spirals downward from there. In recent years, he has clung to power as the country's economy spiraled downward and political opposition to his government has grown. As Hendrix writes: ‘This is a movie that spirals down and down until it passes the point of no return.’ As the stock market continues to spiral downward and investor losses mount, mutual fund fees have found a way to continue to rise. The alternative is to try to liquidate a trust that will send prices spiralling down elsewhere hitting other bank loans in barbell structures. Shares spiralled down more than 75 per cent this morning, valuing the firm, which two years ago was worth £2.5 billion, at around £75m. Meanwhile, diplomatic relations between the two nuclear-armed states continue to spiral downward. The more you give in to desire the more you desire - and so the wicked vortex spirals down. The origin of her compulsive behaviour is the blank space around which the novel circles, as the former private-school girl spirals downward into drug addiction and anorexia. There are just so many things that a creative government could do, and they would rather shove their thumbs up their bums and fiddle while Nassau spirals downward. In April 1986 it fell to $2.40 and continued spiraling down to $2.01. Yet from there, Elvis's life only spirals downward. Our times make you wonder if we're spiraling down into the end of time. Let's hope that the government fulfills its promise to provide more funding for NHS dental treatment or else I can see that this family's teeth may start spiralling down towards decay and dentures. As I write this, I find myself spiralling down into even more unhappiness and depression. The problem in our country is not between Tsvangirai and Mugabe, it has now spiralled down to grass-roots level. Synonyms deteriorate, decline, degenerate, worsen, get worse informal go downhill, take a nosedive, go to pot, go to the dogs, hit the skids, go down the toilet, go down the tubes Derivatives spirally adverb ˈspʌɪrəliˈspaɪrəli The effect is created by spirally curved, inward-pointing needles that twist covetously around the plant's flexible stems - cascading locks on a seemingly restless tree. Example sentencesExamples The woolly mammoth has two distinctive spirally curved tusks up to 3.5 metres long. Within 1 hr, the resulting spirally coiled, gelatinous spermatophore has been transferred to the female. Pinaceae are Monoecious with small pollen cones and larger seed cones with spirally arranged scales. The central awn in A. simpliciflora is prominently spiral-twisted and contorted to 180 degrees versus spreading to deflexed and not conspicuously spirally twisted basally in A. virgata. spirality noun-ˈralɪti Origin Mid 16th century (as an adjective): from medieval Latin spiralis, from Latin spira 'coil' (see spire²). Rhymes viral Definition of spiral in US English: spiral adjectiveˈspaɪrəlˈspīrəl 1Winding in a continuous and gradually widening (or tightening) curve, either around a central point on a flat plane or about an axis so as to form a cone. a spiral pattern Example sentencesExamples As soon as the tumbler begins turning, a spiral pattern appears as grains of one color wrap around grains of the other color. This creates the spiral Damascus pattern and it is forged again to form a billet. It was white with a red and blue spiral tie-dye pattern, and had a Yin / Yang symbol at the center. The spiral pattern is sufficiently regular that it leads to a numerical parameter characteristic for the species, called its divergence. I traced the spiral pattern on one of the rugs with me toe. Female tusks, when they do appear, tend to be shorter and cleaner with more tightly wound spiral patterns. Mina lowered her eyes to my shirt, tracing the blue spiral pattern with the fingertips of her left hand. Hundreds of truckloads of mining refuse were brought in, then planted with 11,000 Finnish pine trees in a complex spiral pattern. Place the dough in a greased banitsa pan, starting in the middle and spiralling out, pressing the coils into the spiral shape towards the edge of the pan, baking as above. The way in which the spiral patterns of sunflower seeds and pine cones grow is described by the sequence, and it is common for the number of petals on a flower to be a Fibonacci number. It was like a pink disk, flat, and inch across, a spiral pattern of tiny dots on its surface. If they had a very special request they purchased a spiral coil of incense which was suspended from the ceiling and burned slowly over a whole week. Complexity is the study of how complicated systems can generate simple behavior, such as the sustained spiral pattern seen here. The large coiled-straw hat forms a spiral pattern above the sharecropper's graying head, a halo earned, but perhaps too little too late. The barren land around her was lit, revealing the tents that swirled around in a spiral pattern. Down would go a wing, and the plane would enter a spiral spin. When the solution is placed as a thin film under stationary conditions, concentric or spiral wave patterns develop in the solution. Most of those photos show the orbs to have a spiral pattern inside the orb. Arrange all integers in a hexagonal spiral pattern. Most crop deformations appear as simple, nearly perfect circles of grain flattened in a spiral pattern. 1.1 Winding in a continuous curve of constant diameter about a central axis, as though along a cylinder; helical. Example sentencesExamples If you take a look, you will see that, in many cases, as you progress up along a stem, the leaves are located on a spiral path that winds around the stem. A round steel newel post supports a spiral oak volute and anchors the balustrade to a wide bottom step. She was twisting the spiral cord with her long red nails. Helicobacter pylori, a spiral bacterium of the stomach, infects more than half of the world's population. The plates were shaped to induce spiral motion in the particles, since accelerating them along a straight track would require an accelerator longer than the laboratory. The Comanche had gone into spiral mode, twisting this way and that in a futile attempt to stay airborne. In the spring, I took in an exhibit of Frank Gehry models and drawings arrayed along the spiral ramp within the Guggenheim Museum in New York. This meant the dogs had to run at different speeds along their spiral paths. Circular accelerators move particles along a circular or spiral path in machines that vary in size from less than a few feet to many miles in diameter. The male reproductive system contains four pairs of accessory glands, the most prominent of which are the tightly coiled spiral accessory glands. Many club mosses have leaves which are attached in a spiral pattern, while in other creeping species the leaves are all oriented in the same plane. The unit pictured has a spiral twist, first bent around a big tin can, then a smaller one and then an even smaller one for smooth curves. Basically, you twist the developing can in a spiral movement as you invert it. At the edge of each floorplate is a spiral atrium, created by ‘twisting’ each successive floor. The atoms of natural sugars are all laid out in an asymmetrical manner, having a right-handed spiral twist. I will fly counterclockwise around the station in a spiral pattern, starting at the bottom. Volvulus classically appears on the upper GI as a spiral corkscrew of the duodenum. The gold mounting is decorated with pearling and designed in a spiral pattern that has been heavily chased to give the effect of octopus tentacles. They were fleshy and tender like her own arms, but rimmed with spiral corkscrew blades which stretched from wrist to shoulder on each limb, and of course, the hooks. Synonyms coiled, helical, helix-shaped, corkscrew, curling, winding, twisting, whorled, scrolled 1.2 (of a stairway) constantly turning in one direction as it rises, around a solid or open center. Example sentencesExamples At the foot of the spiral stairway, they presented Tetra with their star spangled permits. She descended the dark spiral stairway, careful not to hit her elbows against the narrow passage. The spiral stairwell that circled lazily through each floor was merely inches from the inside of the closet. She pushed open the door and instantly headed up the spiral stairs to the third floor, to her room. A spiral staircase might be a good choice, as you don't have a lot of room, and a spiral stair will take up less room. Anyone climbing the ladder to the loft is suspended above the vertical spiral stairwell - not recommended for those nervous of heights. Our first house wasn't huge, but when I was eight we moved to this enormous place in Hampstead, next to Sting, with spiral stairs and marble floors and a back garden like a playing field. There are some instances, like the spiral stairwell, I know he would've done something in. They made their way down a spiral corridor of stairs. Patsy got up thereafter and redressed, put on her makeup and then went downstairs and found the three-page ransom note at the bottom of the spiral stairway. Quiet, clean and spare, it led, past a short spiral stairway with a gallery, to a darker room. All include a mezzanine level with a wrought-iron spiral stairway leading from a comfortable sitting area to the bedroom above. The party fell back; squatting around the spiral stairwell, pointing their weapons in preparation. The damage to one of the two great pinnacles that top the East Front is so bad that if you stand in the spiral stairway inside, you can see daylight through joints between the stones. Kira rolled her eyes and followed her, up a long spiral stairway. Each floor has an oblong chamber with a small room and spiral stair in the wall thickness at the seaward end. The three of them walked single file down past the familiar sets of doors and the rows of bunks and again entered the spiral stairwell. They found the stairway - a spiral stairway constructed of black marble - almost immediately and started up it. I decided to leave our luggage downstairs rather than negotiate the spiral stairway. Bahamut proceeded into the enclosed spiral stairwell that would lead them to the peak of the mountain. 1.3Medicine (of a fracture) curving around a long bone lengthwise. Example sentencesExamples A throwing fracture is a spiral fracture of the shaft of the humerus which is caused by the high torque on the arm during the throw. Transverse fractures are often harder to align and immobilise than apparently more serious oblique or spiral fractures. Recently he was forced to take an extended break to recover from a spiral fracture to his fibula, which ended up requiring multiple surgeries. Luckily, the break was in a spiral fracture and I didn't need any plates or screws, so they just slapped a cast on my leg, gave me some Motrin, and I was on my way. The 26-year-old received a spiral fracture of the right leg last May, but is poised to start the final surge back to full fitness next week. 1.4 a spiral notebook short for spiral-bound Example sentencesExamples But, now, she was scrawling badly jumbled words in an old spiral notebook that she rarely ever used. He carried a large spiral notebook under his left arm. I keep these spiral notebooks, and everyday I write down the date and start a new page. As a compact, portable device, the Tablet PC, which is about the size of a typical spiral notebook, is said to add a new dimension to the classroom. People behind these spiral notebooks with glossy finishing and other stationery items are mentally challenged children. In English we all get a spiral notebook we're to write in. I closed my spiral notebook and stuffed it into my bag. ‘We write in a spiral notebook, and when we need to name a foal we refer to it for ideas,’ Charles said. A small wooden desk, bearing a blue ceramic lamp and a spiral notebook, crouched bowlegged in one corner. To complement such play, a simple recipe book with large numbers, words, and pictures can be made out of a spiral notebook with laminated pages. For some reason the girl closed herself off even more, keeping to her spiral notebook and taking in what the teachers had to say. When I sat down at my desk, I pulled out my spiral notebook. Kerrie reached down at her side and picked up a spiral notebook. The truth was locked up in the confines of my spiral notebook. In either case, the child's responses may be recorded as a check on sticky labels, Post-it pads, or in a small spiral notebook. For several months now I've been carrying around a little pocket-size spiral notebook in my jacket. Tiara snatched a spiral notebook out of Erik's hand. I write in spiral notebooks, the plain, drugstore kind. I always carry a small spiral notebook in my shirt pocket and, more recently, a small electronic memo recorder, to save ideas and images for future use. nounˈspaɪrəlˈspīrəl 1A spiral curve, shape, or pattern. he spotted a spiral of smoke Example sentencesExamples In ever-more-abstracted form and diverse media, these elemental shapes, such as spirals, labyrinths, lozenges, and goddesses, recurred in her work. Angeli's many works were on infinitesimals and he used them to study spirals, parabolas and hyperbolas. Fowler's work consists of repetitive handwritten words, scribed on paper in spirals and other patterns. Small spiral shaped gills are found, which pick up oxygen from the water. The designs are sometimes simply spirals or other patterns, but they might also be scenes from fairy tales or of famous people or places. Although dubbed ‘Gherkin,’ the spiral in its shape more resembles a pinecone. For another example from the botanical world, if you look at a sunflower you will see a beautiful pattern of two spirals, one running clockwise, the other counterclockwise. We show elementary hand-drawn patterns such as spirals and gold bands. It has a top speed of fifty five miles per hour and riders will experience spirals, corkscrews, a cobra roll, and overbanked curves. It is useful to observe the patient drinking from a glass, writing, or drawing a rhythmic pattern such as a spiral. However, I do remember clearly the double spiral (figure-of-eight) shape. That is why that is such an important moment, not because the thing was shaped like two spirals - that's just aesthetically pleasing - but because the world changed on that day. Afterwards, he paced around in his own form, then as deer-beast, and then returned to his true shape to fly in spirals above the temporary camp. On the bare floorboards was a design, a twisting pattern of spirals and waves that was mesmerising. Deeply engraved in each structure was a pattern of wings and spirals, that almost resembled a bird flying towards the ceiling. She pulled out something that looked to be a key, but it was made of crystal, and the end of it curved into a spiral. In it he describes very clearly the distinctive spiral shaped organisms which were later identified as being part of the helicobacter family. Headdresses, like the African one pictured in this article, show one way in which people have used spirals based on shapes found in Nature for headdresses. For more than three centuries botanists and mathematicians have marveled at the complex and beautiful spiral patterns that form as plants develop. The pattern can be spied in everything from the spirals of sea shells to the shape of pine cones. Synonyms coil, helix, curl, corkscrew, twist, gyre, whorl, scroll, curlicue, convolution 1.1 A spiral spring. Example sentencesExamples Much of it is fantastically shaped, topiarised into spirals, balls, hens, even buxom elephants. Continue rotating the triangles counterclockwise until they have formed a complete spiral. The dominant allele dictates right-handedness - and a clockwise hair spiral. The Gherkin is a spiral of darkened bands arcing round the panes at the top catching the sun, the rest of the building appearing almost translucent. In between each spiral was a beautifully painted butterfly. Cut out and hang spirals of shiny paper, several toys or sparkly paper shapes on a coat hanger. Continue twisting your hair loosely to form a spiral on top of your head. Behind the receptionist - whose dais is made of glowing plastic blocks, there is a wall with an undulating psychedelic orange spiral. It was decorated with both silver and gold curves and spirals in perfect balance. I roll over so many times in the night that it would be a big twisted spiral around my waist by morning. The 3D curves are incorporated into a wire part, and the curve elements are straight lines, arcs, circles, spline curves, spirals and curves on surfaces. In an attempt to avoid the tell-tale pyramid shape, spirals, boxes and straight lines are used. Their roots, after centuries of carefully controlled growth, curled to form circles and spirals. A questing hand raised to her hair, stopping dead when fingers met a mass of stylized hair curled into spirals. They're shaped like short rods, spheres or spirals. After shaping the spirals, he teased them with a comb for height and fullness. The costumes, made up of spirals, triangles, and cones, were constructed of padded cloth and papier-maché and were coated with metallic paint. Each work comprises geometric figures; circles, half-circles, spirals and straight or curved lines. A spider creates its sticky orb following a genetically determined recipe for laying out the various radii and spirals of the web. Ask somewhat what a spiral is, for example, and they will almost inevitably mimic the shape of a spiral with their hands. 1.2Astronomy short for spiral galaxy Example sentencesExamples Both galaxies are spirals of roughly the same age, with stars strewn across flattened disks of roughly the same size, more than 100,000 light-years across. Galaxies and nebulae are often enormous spirals floating in outer space. Starbirth regions exist in most galaxies, particularly in spirals, and are obvious as clouds of predominantly hydrogen gas call H II regions. Hubble's tuning fork distinguishes ‘normal’ spiral galaxies from spirals that show a bar across the center. 2A progressive rise or fall of prices, wages, etc., each responding to an upward or downward stimulus provided by a previous one. an inflationary spiral Example sentencesExamples As for property prices, there is no end to their upward spiral in sight. The output reductions would be made with a view to halting the downward spiral of DRAM prices, itself caused by supply vastly outweighing demand. Economists said the increase was higher than had been expected and presented a danger that the economy would become caught up in a spiral of higher wage demands and higher prices. Why work when we can all borrow against an ever upward spiral of house prices? The residents are quite rightly convinced it will blight the area and lead to increased crime and a downward spiral of house prices. Nesc says inflation must be tackled to avoid a wage price spiral becoming embedded in the economy. Meritz also believes that the major memory producers will soon begin to cut back on production in a bid to prevent the downward spiral of DRAM prices. The company's share price, already in a downward spiral, continued its fall and has now lost half its value in the past year and a half. Carrefour and Casino have shown disappointing growth since the French government demanded a year ago that the country's food retailers reverse the upward spiral of prices. There would be a downward spiral of prices, but no actual increase in market share for any of the firms involved. Until recently, the Fed was worried that the nation would fall into deflation - a downward spiral of prices. He also said the Japanese economy is not about to fall into a deflationary spiral under which price falls and economic contraction take place simultaneously. But if inflation is negative, that strategy won't work, and the economy could fall into a downward spiral. It is no less important to ensure that costlier fuel does not give rise to an excessive inflationary spiral as regards the prices of other goods and services. Unfortunately, the downward spiral in price would be a direct consequence of any further reduction in tariff protection. Price pressure could lead to a wage spiral while dangerously high government spending also poses very real dangers down the line, he warned. Manufacturers also reported pressure from rising input costs, as oil prices continued their upward spiral. This is stuff that can put us on the front page of The Wall Street Journal and our share price in a downward spiral. It's not workers caught in downward wage spirals. As a result, there was an upward spiral in the share price of GTB, which helped it achieve a better swap ratio in the merger. Synonyms growth, rise, enlargement, expansion, extension, multiplication, elevation, swelling, inflation 2.1 A process of deterioration through the continuous increase or decrease of a specified feature. a downward spiral of sex and drink Example sentencesExamples Over the next few years, she would hear about him through her brother, about his remarriage, his downward spiral, his self-destruction. The downward spiral on local business will only get worse, they fear. The problem is how easy it is for an enjoyable night to slide into a downward spiral of chasing losses and going on tilt. It was a gradual process that progressed through a downward spiral of self destruction. Players were sold to try to take up some of the slack, increasing the spiral of disaster. The highest rates of sexual infection and unwanted pregnancy are in people from deprived backgrounds further increasing the spiral of decline into poverty and ill health. Since you broke up she's embarked on a downward spiral of dating increasingly unattractive men and it all makes for quite desperate reading. Nick Duerden's second novel studies the spiral of self destructiveness, and how some can fail over and over again yet still come out winning. This went on to cause no end of grief for her Mum and a downward spiral of self-destruction for this confused young teen. Or else he will become one more voice in the wilderness in a country determined to go on a downward spiral of social and ecological self-destruction. There is a continuous downward spiral of living conditions for the majority of the population. Bender gets hooked on electricity, and Fry and the gang worry that he's on a downward spiral toward self-destruction. Chazan described the Israeli-Palestinian situation as a mess for the past four years and two months - a cycle of violence in a deteriorating spiral. The bulk of the first half of the film concerns Jack Magnus's introduction to drugs and his downward spiral into self-destructive addiction. ‘I'm a great optimist, but we're now caught in a downward spiral, economically and socially,’ he said. His term also saw a further increase in the spiral of violence, increasingly carried out by actors independent of the state. This loss sends the relationship into a downward spiral, leading to increased bickering and fighting, and to the collapse of the union. The huge work pressure the tutorial system creates, can lead students into a downward spiral of self-deprecation and loss of confidence. The collapse of the property bubble and the Asian financial crisis in 1997 sent the city into a downward spiral of job losses and deflation. Datalex continued its downward spiral after reporting a larger than expected second-quarter loss last week. 3American Football A pass or kick that moves smoothly through the air while spinning on its long axis. Example sentencesExamples It takes a rotation or two to get the center started into a smooth spiral. He rarely has thrown passes on target; even fewer have been spirals. Kilmer was the Redskins' paunchy quarterback who never mastered the spiral but, at 36, could still move a team. The axis of the spiral seems small and the orbit fixed. verbˈspaɪrəlˈspīrəl 1no object, with adverbial of direction Move in a spiral course. a wisp of smoke spiraled up from the trees Example sentencesExamples After being cooped up in those constricting nests for months, here they were climbing, diving, spiraling and chattering feverishly, becoming better aeronauts by the minute. Jane stared down at the water, the fish spiralling, swimming, moving with the current. Faint smoke spiraled off the battery connections as they heated up. Sammy tapped her thumb furiously on the kick button, blocked Jack's move, and sent the character spiraling into the air. Ivan started climbing the staircase that spiraled up to the payload section and gangway. In the clear blue sky above, four open-billed storks had a got a thermal and were spiralling up, Icaris-like, on motionless wings, to an unknown destination. Hitting the far wall, he slipped down to the floor, escaping the rest of Shanza's attack, which roared through the obstacle to spiral out of the Temple and shoot into the sky. When she looked around, she saw smoke spiraling from Charybdis. A cloud was slowly spiraling towards the sun and they retreated, moving to the edge of the forest, watching the skeletons appear one by one. The missiles that we shot just spiraled randomly after a second or two after being shot. White smoke must soon spiral up from Smith Square. The butterflies leapt into flight, spiraling up into the sunlight, up and up until Joshua could no longer see them. The dance troupe recounts the death of gods - from the polluted air and the smoke spiraling up from sacrifices made in their honour. A huge blaze at an industrial park in Leeds last night sent plumes of black smoke spiralling nearly 2,000 ft into the air. Soon enough, our intrepid reporter hero realizes that, due to some nuclear explosion experimentation, the earth has been thrust out of its orbit and is now spiralling towards the sun. Moss clung to the rocks and ivy climbed tirelessly, spiralling around the trees. The blast ripped through three storeys of the building and started a fire which sent smoke spiralling through the twin towers. Synonyms coil, wind, twirl, swirl, twist, wreathe, snake, gyrate 1.1with object and adverbial Cause to have a spiral shape or follow a spiral course. spiral the bandage around the injured limb Example sentencesExamples Digital modification stands in for genetic, and so the animals are lengthened, spiralled or moved across the picture plane as if a magnetic force - an exterior one - operated. Twist the rod until the hair section is spiralled around it (the barrel should be held vertically, so the top is pointing up). Synonyms coil, wind, twirl, swirl, twist, wreathe, snake, gyrate 2no object Show a continuous and dramatic increase. inflation continued to spiral Example sentencesExamples Houses gone out of people's reach, rents spiralling, inadequate hospital services, too few places for children at risk - it's all there under the cover of affluence. Unemployment soared, thousands emigrated and the national debt spiralled out of control. The stress with trying to move house has spiralled out of all control and doesn't look like it's going to reduce in the near future. A growing compensation culture is being blamed by councillors in Leeds for the city's spiralling legal bill which has reached £22m. But the cost of the equipment they need, such as ropes, flares and the transmitters that detect the position of avalanche victims, is spiralling beyond the teams' ability to raise cash. ‘The problem is further exacerbated by spiralling operational cost and high turnover of staff,’ Roopnarine said. All the words they use are true: prices are soaring, spiralling, skyrocketing. Shortages for low-income Torontonians were once again rampant, rents were spiraling and evictions were increasing. Policing the event, diverting the traffic and setting up and marshalling the course would see the costs spiralling. I don't care enough about furniture, fast moving consumer goods, spiralling debt, bad public transport, grumpy angry faces. Tuition fees and the cost of living can lead to spiralling debts, or long hours in dead-end jobs taken to make ends meet. The Northern Ireland drug chief, Jo Daykin, yesterday said cannabis use there could spiral following the move. It is also around four times the original estimate, and as costs spiralled, Congress moved to scrap the project in its entirety. Regulation of the language school sector is needed urgently to combat spiralling levels of visa fraud involving thousands of individuals, a senior Garda has warned. The downward move came as fears eased that the hostage standoff could spiral out of control. Above any other area in the county the people of Ballon have faced tragedy after tragedy as the carnage on their local roads spirals to epidemic proportions. As tensions have spiraled between Pyongyang and the US, Anti-American sentiment has exploded in South Korea. He said this led to spiralling levels of thuggishness, vandalism and violent crime when revellers spilled on to the streets at closing time, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. But of course the story has to spiral out of control ending in a ridiculous scene involving the social worker who has been assigned to Denise and RJ's case. Synonyms soar, shoot up, rocket, increase rapidly, rise rapidly, leap up, escalate, climb, mount 2.1spiral down/downward Decrease or deteriorate continuously. he expects the figures to spiral down further Example sentencesExamples There are just so many things that a creative government could do, and they would rather shove their thumbs up their bums and fiddle while Nassau spirals downward. As Hendrix writes: ‘This is a movie that spirals down and down until it passes the point of no return.’ The alternative is to try to liquidate a trust that will send prices spiralling down elsewhere hitting other bank loans in barbell structures. Yet from there, Elvis's life only spirals downward. Nationally, there was also some good news with a 29 per cent drop, with the figure for the month spiralling down to 115 from 163. In April 1986 it fell to $2.40 and continued spiraling down to $2.01. Unable to accept this reality, Kinsley, like many of the president's other critics, continues to spiral downward into irrationality. In recent years, he has clung to power as the country's economy spiraled downward and political opposition to his government has grown. It starts with the discovery of a man buried alive and spirals downward from there. Meanwhile, diplomatic relations between the two nuclear-armed states continue to spiral downward. Worse yet, as the economy continued to spiral downward, the inflow of dollars slowed, forcing the currency board to restrict the country's money supply even further. Let's hope that the government fulfills its promise to provide more funding for NHS dental treatment or else I can see that this family's teeth may start spiralling down towards decay and dentures. As I write this, I find myself spiralling down into even more unhappiness and depression. As the stock market continues to spiral downward and investor losses mount, mutual fund fees have found a way to continue to rise. Our times make you wonder if we're spiraling down into the end of time. The neoliberal ‘medicine’ made the sickness worse: unemployment rocketed, living standards spiralled downwards. Shares spiralled down more than 75 per cent this morning, valuing the firm, which two years ago was worth £2.5 billion, at around £75m. The origin of her compulsive behaviour is the blank space around which the novel circles, as the former private-school girl spirals downward into drug addiction and anorexia. The problem in our country is not between Tsvangirai and Mugabe, it has now spiralled down to grass-roots level. The more you give in to desire the more you desire - and so the wicked vortex spirals down. Synonyms deteriorate, decline, degenerate, worsen, get worse Origin Mid 16th century (as an adjective): from medieval Latin spiralis, from Latin spira ‘coil’ (see spire).
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