Spin"dle (?), n. [AS. spinal, fr. spinnan to spin; akin to D. spil, G. spille, spindel, OHG. spinnala. &root;170. 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.

Specifically: --

(a) Mach.

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.

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

7. Zool. (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. Zool. 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. Europaeus was used for spindles and skewers. See Prickwood.

 

© Webster 1913.


Spin"dle, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Spindled(?); p. pr. & vb. n. Spindling (?).]

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.

 

© Webster 1913.