COIL • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Coil

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/kɔɪl/ Listen

noun

Coil n.

A ring, series of rings, or spiral, into which a rope, or other like thing, is wound. "The wild grapevines that twisted their coils from trec to tree."

Fig.: Entanglement; toil; mesh; perplexity.

A series of connected pipes in rows or layers, as in a steam heating apparatus.

Induction coil. (Elec.) See under Induction.

Ruhmkorff's coil (Elec.), an induction coil, sometimes so called from Ruhmkorff, a prominent manufacturer of the apparatus.

Coil n. A noise, tumult, bustle, or confusion. (Obs.)

verb

Coil v. t. (past & past part. coiled; pres. part. coiling)

To wind cylindrically or spirally; as, to coil a rope when not in use; the snake coiled itself before springing.

To encircle and hold with, or as with, coils. (Obs. or R.)

Coil v. i. To wind itself cylindrically or spirally; to form a coil; to wind; often with about or around. "You can see his flery serpents... Coiting, playing in the water."

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Etymology of 'Coil'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Coil" Quotes from Famous Books

... recover the lost property; so, while the captain was making his up-river trip, the Ohio boy worked industriously dredging for the cable. He found it; and under-running the heavy rope, raised it and the anchor. When the steamer returned to Beteley's Landing, Stirling delivered the anchor and coil of rope to the captain, who, intending to defraud the young man of the promised reward, ordered the mate to "cast off the lines." The gong had signalled the engineer to get under way, but not quick enough to escape the young ...

— Four Months in a Sneak-Box • Nathaniel H. Bishop

... breast by the first view of these so-long-interred articles of use or ornament of a bygone generation, and on the spot where their owners perished. It was as though the secrets of the grave were revealed; and that, to convince us of the perishable coil of which mortals are formed, it is given us to behold how much more durable are the commonest utensils of daily use than the frames of those who boast themselves lords of the creation. But here am I moralizing, when I ought to be taking advantage of this ...

— The Idler in France • Marguerite Gardiner

... limits could I bind my woes: When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o'erflow? If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad, Threatening the welkin with his big-swol'n face? And wilt thou have a reason for this coil? I am the sea; hark, how her sighs do flow! She is the weeping welkin, I the earth: Then must my sea be moved with her sighs; Then must my earth with her continual tears Become a deluge, overflow'd and drown'd; For why my bowels ...

— The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus • William Shakespeare [Collins edition]

... the world at the Pre Catelan, Maxine and Blake had lengthened the coil of their dream as the day waxed. Three o'clock had seen them driving into the heart of the Bois, and late afternoon had found them wandering under the formal, interlaced trees in the gardens of the Petit Trianon. ...

— Max • Katherine Cecil Thurston

... their habitation; for their cabin half burrowed in the mountain, and half clung, like a swallow's nest, to the side of the deep declivity that terminated the northern limit of the summit. Had it not been for the windlass of a shaft, a coil of rope, and a few heaps of stone and gravel, which were the only indications of human labor in that stony field, there was nothing to interrupt its monotonous dead level. And, when they descended a dozen well-worn ...

— The Twins of Table Mountain and Other Stories • Bret Harte

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