spindle
Meanings
noun
- A rod used for spinning and then winding fibres (especially wool), usually consisting of a shaft and a circular whorl positioned at either the upper or lower end of the shaft when suspended vertically from the forming thread.
- A rod which turns, or on which something turns.
- A rotary axis of a machine tool or power tool.
- The axle of a bottom bracket.
- Certain of the species of the genus Euonymus, originally used for making the spindles used for spinning wool.
- An upright spike for holding paper documents by skewering.
- The fusee of a watch.
- Any long and slender stalk resembling a spindle from Euonymus.
- A yarn measure containing, in cotton yarn, 15,120 yards; in linen yarn, 14,400 yards.
- A solid generated by the revolution of a curved line about its base or double ordinate or chord.
- Any marine univalve shell of the genus Tibia; a spindle stromb.
- Any marine gastropod with a spindle-shaped shell formerly in one of the three invalid genera called Fusus.
verb
- To make into a long tapered shape.
- To take on a long tapered shape.
- To impale on a device for holding paper documents.
name
- A surname transferred from the nickname.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English spyndel, spindle, spyndylle, from Old English spindle, spindel, alteration of earlier spinel, spinil, spinl (“spindle”), from Proto-West Germanic *spinnilu (“spindle”), equivalent to spin + -le. Cognate with Scots spindil, spinnell (“spindle”), Dutch spindel ("spindle"; < Middle Dutch spille, spinle), German Spindel (“spindle”), Danish spindel (“spindle”), Swedish spindel (“spindle”). The dragonfly sense (noun sense 14) is a calque of Swedish slända (dragonfly/spindle); this word was introduced by New Sweden settlers.
Synonyms
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