Spin

SPIN, SPIN'NING. The nations of antiquity placed great stress upon this womanly occupation - indeed, it was a necessary duty, since the preparation of the materials, no less than the making of the dress itself, fell upon the women. In the Bible there are only two direct notices of the art, Ex 35:25-26; Prov 31:19; but, since it is spoken of as a matter of course, we infer the custom was universal. Distaff-spinning was the mode, as is now the case in the East, wheel-spinning being apparently unknown. The Hebrew women spun wool and flax from the distaff and twisted the thread by means of the spindle, and made up camel and goat-hair into sackcloth for mourning, girdles, and tent-covers. The women also made rope and cord. The men did not engage in such work. See Distaff.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. The act of spinning; as, the spin of a top; a spin a bicycle. [Colloq.]

2. Velocity of rotation about some specified axis. go for a spin take a spin, take a trip in a wheeled vehicle, usu. an automobile.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

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. Shak.

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 Sheridan.

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. L'Estrange.

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. 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.]

Part of speech: verb (v.)

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. Prior.

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. Longfellow. With a whirligig of jubilant mosquitoes spinning about each head. G. W. Cable.

3. To stream or issue in a thread or a small current or jet; as, blood spinsfrom a vein. Shak.

4. To move swifty; as, to spin along the road in a carriage, on a bicycle, etc. [Colloq.]