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Spinning   /spˈɪnɪŋ/   Listen
noun
Spinning  n.  A. & n. from Spin.
Spinning gland (Zool.), one of the glands which form the material for spinning the silk of silkworms and other larvae.
Spinning house, formerly a common name for a house of correction in England, the women confined therein being employed in spinning.
Spinning jenny (Mach.), an engine or machine for spinning wool or cotton, by means of a large number of spindles revolving simultaneously.
Spinning mite (Zool.), the red spider.
Spinning wheel, a machine for spinning yarn or thread, in which a wheel drives a single spindle, and is itself driven by the hand, or by the foot acting on a treadle.


verb
Spin  v. t.  (past span; past part. spun; pres. part. spinning)  
1.
To draw out, and twist into threads, either by the hand or machinery; as, to spin wool, cotton, or flax; to spin goat's hair; to produce by drawing out and twisting a fibrous material. "All the yarn she (Penelope) spun in Ulysses' absence did but fill Ithaca full of moths."
2.
To draw out tediously; to form by a slow process, or by degrees; to extend to a great length; with out; as, to spin out large volumes on a subject. "Do you mean that story is tediously spun out?"
3.
To protract; to spend by delays; as, to spin out the day in idleness. "By one delay after another they spin out their whole lives."
4.
To cause to turn round rapidly; to whirl; to twirl; as, to spin a top.
5.
To form (a web, a cocoon, silk, or the like) from threads produced by the extrusion of a viscid, transparent liquid, which hardens on coming into contact with the air; said of the spider, the silkworm, etc.
6.
(Mech.) To shape, as malleable sheet metal, into a hollow form, by bending or buckling it by pressing against it with a smooth hand tool or roller while the metal revolves, as in a lathe.
To spin a yarn (Naut.), to tell a story, esp. a long or fabulous tale.
To spin hay (Mil.), to twist it into ropes for convenient carriage on an expedition.
To spin street yarn, to gad about gossiping. (Collog.)


Spin  v. i.  (past span; past part. spun; pres. part. spinning)  
1.
To practice spinning; to work at drawing and twisting threads; to make yarn or thread from fiber; as, the woman knows how to spin; a machine or jenny spins with great exactness. "They neither know to spin, nor care to toll."
2.
To move round rapidly; to whirl; to revolve, as a top or a spindle, about its axis. "Round about him spun the landscape, Sky and forest reeled together." "With a whirligig of jubilant mosquitoes spinning about each head."
3.
To stream or issue in a thread or a small current or jet; as, blood spinsfrom a vein.
4.
To move swifty; as, to spin along the road in a carriage, on a bicycle, etc. (Colloq.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Spinning" Quotes from Famous Books



... strong for a girl, but against this steely strength that held her she was helpless. And for a time the sense of her helplessness and the pain that any resistance to the arm wrapped round her gave her made her lie quiet. She felt the Arab check his horse, felt the chestnut wheel, spinning high on his hind legs, and ...
— The Sheik - A Novel • E. M. Hull
... chances are against the bodies striking together centrally, it being very much more likely that they will hit each other rather towards the side. The nebulous mass formed as a result of the disintegration of the bodies through their furious impact would thus come into being with a spinning movement, and a spiral would ensue. Again, the stars may not actually collide, but merely approach near to each other. If very close, the interaction of gravitation will give rise to intense strains, or tides, which will entirely ...
— Astronomy of To-day - A Popular Introduction in Non-Technical Language • Cecil G. Dolmage
... passed over our heads at no great height. The noise of their engines made everybody look up. They were flying north. And I felt a desire to rush upwards and overtake one of them and take my seat close to the pilot, behind the propeller which was spinning round and sending the wind of its giddy speed into his face. I longed to be able to lift myself into the air above the battlefields, and there, suspended in space, try to make out the ...
— In the Field (1914-1915) - The Impressions of an Officer of Light Cavalry • Marcel Dupont
... the men go to bed early, they make up for it by rising early too; and if they are sleepy at night, they feel delightfully fresh in the morning. A brisk walk over the common sends the human barometer spinning upwards; they feel ready for any fun that comes in their way. And, alas! did not this same buoyancy of spirit not many years ago involve certain respectable oarsmen in a difference with the executive? ...
— The Idler Magazine, Volume III, March 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various
... his top-floor back, spinning by rushlight his web of beauty, was greater than the finest critical intelligence that ever lived. The one, for all his poor technique, was stammering over something God had whispered to him, the other merely destroying thoughts ...
— The Centaur • Algernon Blackwood


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