🚽 Toilet bullying 🌀 Curved designs 💫 Dizzy or lightheaded

swirly

6 9.9

A bullying act where someone forces another person's head into a toilet and flushes it

noun
/ˈswɜrli/

Offensive

: meter la cabeza en el inodoro y tirar de la cadena (coloquial, ofensivo, EE. UU.)

In movies, a swirly is often shown as a humiliating prank among school kids.
give me a swirly

Examples

Swirlies are the worst.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009)
During the school lunch break, the bullies tried to give me a swirly in the bathroom.
I got a swirly, too.

School for Scoundrels (2006)
Yeah, well, I stood up to a guy at my work, and he gave me a swirly.

School for Scoundrels (2006)
I'm already starting to feel nauseous from memories of wedgies and swirlies!

Shrek the Third (2007)
The Varsity Lettermen do all the time, pantsing freshmen, giving guys wedgies, swirlies.

The Prankster (2010)
He held my head down in the toilet and gave me a swirly, laughing the whole time.

How Violent

assault

Specialized

378 4.5

swirly

Offensive

6 9.9

bullying

Offensive

148 2.7

harassment

596 4.6

teasing

2.7

Surface Forms

swirly singular

swirlies plural

Morphology

swirly = swirl (semi-transparent) = swirl + y

Morphologically it's swirl + -y, but the specific slang meaning (to put someone's head in a toilet and swirl the water) is idiomatic and culturally specific, so the exact referent is not fully predictable from the base.

Etymology

Swirly comes from swirl, the idea of water moving in circles, with -y turning it into a name for the action. A helpful way to remember the bullying sense is that it describes forcing a head into toilet water and making it spin, so the name matches the cruel act.