Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Spin

Spin, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spun (Archaic imp. Span); p. pr. & vb. n. Spinning.] [AS. spinnan; akin to D. & G. spinnen, Icel. & Sw. spinna, Dan. spinde, Goth. spinnan, and probably to E. span. √170. Cf. Span, v. t., Spider.] 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. (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 (spĭn), v. i. 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.]

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

2. (Kinematics) Velocity of rotation about some specified axis.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.