They whirl dishes around nerve centres (9)

I believe the answer is:

dervishes

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'they whirl' is the definition.
Although both the answer and 'whirl' are nouns, they are not in the same form of the noun.

'dishes around nerve centres' is the wordplay.
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'centres' says to take the centre.
The middle letters of 'nerve' are 'erv'.
'dishes' placed around 'erv' is 'DERVISHES'.

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I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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