WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Spin"dle
Part of Speech : n.
Etymology : [AS. spinal, fr. spinnan to spin; akin to D. spil, G. spille, spindel, OHG. spinnala. sq. root170. See Spin.]
Definition : 1. The long, round, slender rod or pin in spinning wheels by which the thread is twisted, and on which, when twisted, it is wound; also, the pin on which the bobbin is held in a spinning machine, or in the shuttle of a loom.

2. A slender rod or pin on which anything turns; an axis; as, the spindle of a vane. Specifically: --(a) (Mach.)

Defn: The shaft, mandrel, or arbor, in a machine tool, as a lathe or drilling machine, etc., which causes the work to revolve, or carries a tool or center, etc. (b) (Mach.) The vertical rod on which the runner of a grinding mill turns. (c) (Founding) A shaft or pipe on which a core of sand is formed.

3. The fusee of a watch.

4. A long and slender stalk resembling a spindle.

5. A yarn measure containing, in cotton yarn, 15,120 yards; in linen yarn, 14,400 yards.

6. (Geom.)

Defn: A solid generated by the revolution of a curved line about its base or double ordinate or chord.

7. (Zo?l.) (a) Any marine univalve shell of the genus Rostellaria; -- called also spindle stromb. (b) Any marine gastropod of the genus Fusus. Dead spindle (Mach.), a spindle in a machine tool that does not revolve; the spindle of the tailstock of a lathe. -- Live spindle (Mach.), the revolving spindle of a machine tool; the spindle of the headstock of a turning lathe. -- Spindle shell. (Zo?l.) See Spindle, 7. above. -- Spindle side, the female side in descent; in the female line; opposed to spear side. Ld. Lytton. [R.] "King Lycaon, grandson, by the spindle side, of Oceanus." Lowell. -- Spindle tree (Bot.), any shrub or tree of the genus Eunymus. The wood of E. Europ?us was used for spindles and skewers. See Prickwood.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913

Pronunciation : Spin"dle
Part of Speech : v.
Definition : Defn: To shoot or grow into a long, slender stalk or body; to become disproportionately tall and slender. It has begun to spindle into overintellectuality. Lowell.

i. [imp. & p. p. Spindled(); p. pr. & vb. n. Spindling.]
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913