Spindle
Spindle , noun
[Anglo-Saxon spinal, from spinnan to spin; akin to Dutch spil, German spille, spindel, Old High German spinnala. r170. See Spin.]
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.
(a)
(Machinery) 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)
(Machinery) 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.
(Geometry) A solid generated by the revolution of a curved line about its base or double ordinate or chord.
7.
(a) (Zoology) Any marine univalve shell of the genus Rostellaria; -- called also spindle stromb.
(b)
(Zoology) Any marine gastropod of the genus Fusus.
Collocations (5)
Dead spindle (Machinery) , a spindle in a machine tool that does not revolve; the spindle of the tailstock of a lathe.
Live spindle (Machinery) , the revolving spindle of a machine tool; the spindle of the headstock of a turning lathe.
Spindle side , the female side in descent; in the female line; opposed to spear side. [Rare] — Lowell King Lycaon, grandson, by the spindle side, of Oceanus.
Spindle tree (Botany) , any shrub or tree of the genus Eunymus. The wood of Eunymus Europaeus was used for spindles and skewers. See Prickwood.
Spindle , intransitive verb
To shoot or grow into a long, slender stalk or body; to become disproportionately tall and slender.
It has begun to spindle into overintellectuality.