spindle

To make into a long tapered shape.

Noun

  1. 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.
    • Anna Pavlovna’s soirée was now in full swing. On all sides the spindles were humming away non-stop. - 2005 [1868–9], Anthony Briggs, transl., War and Peace, Penguin Classics, translation of Война́ и миръ by Leo Tolstoy,...
  2. A rod which turns, or on which something turns.
    • the spindle of a vane
    • A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place. - 2012 March 5, Henry...

    Coordinate Terms: axle shaft

  3. A rotary axis of a machine tool or power tool.
  4. The axle of a bottom bracket.
    • Check ball bearings for pitting, cracks, disorderly conduct; cups and cones for uneven wear; spindle for straightness. - 1972, Richard Ballantine, Richard's Bicycle Book, New York: Ballantine Books, page 181:
  5. Certain of the species of the genus Euonymus, originally used for making the spindles used for spinning wool.
  6. An upright spike for holding paper documents by skewering.
    • check spindle
    • receipt spindle

    Coordinate Terms: bill hook billhook

  7. The fusee of a watch.
  8. Any long and slender stalk resembling a spindle from Euonymus.
  9. A yarn measure containing, in cotton yarn, 15,120 yards; in linen yarn, 14,400 yards.
  10. A solid generated by the revolution of a curved line about its base or double ordinate or chord.
  11. Any marine univalve shell of the genus Tibia; a spindle stromb.
  12. Any marine gastropod with a spindle-shaped shell formerly in one of the three invalid genera called Fusus.

Origin

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.

Forms

spindles spindel spinnel

Synonyms

spindle tree

Hypernyms

euonymus

Related

fusiform

Derived

antispindle central spindle hemispindle Japanese spindle minispindle mitotic spindle multispindle perispindle sleep spindle spindle cell spindle diagram spindleful spindlehorn spindle-legged spindlelegs spindlelike spindlemaker spindlemaking spindle neuron spindle poison spindle-shanked spindleshanks spindle-shaped spindletail

Verb

  1. To make into a long tapered shape.
  2. To take on a long tapered shape.
  3. To impale on a device for holding paper documents.
    • Do not fold, spindle or mutilate this document.

Forms

spindles spindling spindled spindel spinnel