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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



... capering, the girl reached the town, but before going into the house she called out at the door, "Come out, mother Teresa, come out, come out; here's a gentleman with letters and other things from my good father." At these words her mother Teresa Panza came out spinning a bundle of flax, in a grey petticoat (so short was it one would have fancied "they to her shame had cut it short"), a grey bodice of the same stuff, and a smock. She was not very old, though plainly past forty, strong, healthy, vigorous, ...
— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
... suddenly moved, rose up, enveloped her, and disappeared into space. Ten days later it was found at the foot of a mulberry-tree; Ts'an Nue changed into a silkworm, was eating the mulberry-leaves, and spinning for herself ...
— Myths and Legends of China • E. T. C. Werner
... hemp, and flax, which we raise ourselves. For fine stuff we shall depend on your northern manufactories. Of these, that is to say, of company establishments, we have none. We use little machinery. The spinning jenny, and loom with the flying shuttle, can be managed in a family; but nothing more complicated. The economy and thriftiness resulting from our household manufactures are such that they will never again ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson
... the Young Empress went to see the silkworms and watch for the eggs to be hatched. As soon as they were out, the Young Empress gathered mulberry leaves for the worms to feed upon and watched them until they were big enough to commence spinning. Each day a fresh supply of leaves were gathered and they were fed four or five times daily. Several of the Court ladies were told off to feed the worms during the night and see that they did not escape. These silkworms grow very rapidly and we could see the difference each ...
— Two Years in the Forbidden City • The Princess Der Ling
... knew neither pain nor grief, nor did I think of what I should eat to-morrow, nor of how I could clothe myself. As bounteous as the hand of God was their house to me. Twelve months in every year I sat peacefully at my spinning-wheel and ...
— Armenian Literature • Anonymous


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