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Webster 1913 Edition

Noun.

[See 3d

The motion of a small stream running among obstructions; also, the murmur it makes in so doing.

ppr.

[from purl.] Murmuring or gurgling, as a brook.

Noun.

The continued gentle murmur of a small stream.

purling

purling ‎(comparative more purling, superlative most purling)

That purls; rippling, eddying.
- 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, III.6:
  They have sometimes caused an high steepy mountaine to arise in the midst of the sayd Amphitheaters, all over-spred with fruitfull and flourishing trees of all sortes, on the top whereof gushed out streames of water as from out the source of a purling spring.

purling ‎(plural purlings)

the motion of a small stream among obstructions; flowing with a murmuring sound
the purlings of the stream