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to spiral up

to spiral up

1 5.3
To rise while turning around in round circles
  • phrasal verb
  • /ˈspaɪrəl ʌp/
translation icon : ascender en espiral
  • But as he made to close his eyes, the column spiraled up and vanished on the wind.
  • spiraled up the smoke
  • spiraled up into the air
  • spiraled up into the sky

I prayed in the dark of my room, but feared my words could no longer spiral up to something beyond.

Examples

  • A ramp spiraled up the walls and connected the balconies on three levels.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • Green fields spiraled up at him, black houses with high-peaked roofs, colorful gardens.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • Ten minutes later, the night grew orange, and smoke spiraled up into the overcast skies.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • He headed for the parking ramp, spiraled up through the floors.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • She had been sitting on the front porch swing, drinking iced tea, casually watching the dust spiral up from under a pickup coming down the county road.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • "He climbed a glass staircase that spiraled up a green glass tube, came out in a waiting room walled with gold-shot red rock that had never been quarried on Earth.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • The child loved the music, and when a host of chords rose high, spiraling up to meet their own echoes, Ybro crowed with laughter, reaching his little arms high as though he were trying to catch the music.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • The queens bellowed their readiness and one by one lifted from the floor of the Bowl and spiraled up to take their positions to the left of N'ton and Lioth.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • The helicopter spiraled up into the cloudy sky, gaining altitude quickly.

  • As the kite caught the wind, it spiraled up higher and higher above the park.

Surface Forms

spiral up infinitive
spiraled up past participle
spiraling up present participle
spirals up third person singular

Morphology

spiral + up

The meaning 'to move or rise in a spiral upward' is directly compositional from 'spiral' (to move around a center in a curve) plus 'up' (toward a higher place), so a learner who knows both words can infer the combined motion. This follows a common motion verb + direction particle pattern found cross-linguistically, making the expression immediately understandable at B1.

Etymology

The verb spiral up creates a simple picture: imagine smoke or balloons turning in a round spiral as they move up into the sky. That's why it means 'to move or rise in a spiral'.