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Spin   /spɪn/   Listen
noun
Spin  n.  
1.
The act of spinning; as, the spin of a top; a spin a bicycle. (Colloq.)
2.
(Kinematics) Velocity of rotation about some specified axis.
3.
(Politics) An interpretation of an event which is favorable to the interpreter or to the person s/he supports. A person whose task is to provide such interpretations for public relations purposes is called a spin doctor.


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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"Spin" Quotes from Famous Books



... river seemed to look on and laugh to see them so gay. It was a very sober, steady river above and below, but right here it went leaping and tumbling over some rocks, making a merry cascade,—just for fun, you would think. The children liked to skip stones and see them spin up and down in the foam; but they had been warned not to go too near the bank. Nobody had ever fallen in yet, but it wasn't a safe place for very little folks, certainly not for roly-poly babies like Bubby Proudfit. He was very clumsy, falling down, rolling over, and picking ...
— The Twin Cousins • Sophie May
... chosen, because the Circassian women are very industrious, supplying their husbands and brothers with all their clothes, from the woollen bonnet to the morocco shoe. The wool, the flax, and the hemp, are all prepared at home by the mothers, and made into clothes by the girls, who first spin the thread, then weave the cloth, and finish by sewing the seams. Some girls are very clever in knitting silver lace for trimming garments. A girl named Dussepli was famous for her skill in this art, indeed her ...
— Far Off • Favell Lee Mortimer
... distrust the gods; But wait, at least, till Caesar's near approach Force us to yield. 'Twill never be too late To sue for chains, and own a conqueror. Why should Rome fall a moment ere her time? No, let us draw her term of freedom out In its full length, and spin it to the last, So shall we gain still one day's liberty; And let me perish, but in Cato's judgment, A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty, Is worth a whole ...
— Cato - A Tragedy, in Five Acts • Joseph Addison
... open before they were hooked to the vehicle. They were being very well fed, and though once a week they had the hardest of work, for the rest of the time they had never more than enough to limber them up, for on schooldays I used to take them out for a spin of three or four miles only, after four. At home, when I left, my wife and I would get them ready in the stable; then I took them out and lined them up in front of the buggy. My wife quickly took the lines: I hooked the traces up, jumped in, grabbed for the lines ...
— Over Prairie Trails • Frederick Philip Grove
... perfection of instinct is due to the extreme severity of the selection during its development, any failure involving destruction. The chick which cannot break the eggshell, the caterpillar that fails to suspend itself properly or to spin a safe cocoon, the bees that lose their way or that fail to store honey, inevitably perish. So the birds that fail to feed and protect their young, or the butterflies that lay their eggs on the wrong ...
— Darwinism (1889) • Alfred Russel Wallace


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