▪ I. † coil, v.1 Obs.
Also coyl(e.
[a. OF. coillir, now cueillir:—L. colligere to collect, gather.]
An earlier form of cull (q.v.), used in the sense, To select, choose. Hence coiling vbl. n.
| 1399 Langl. Rich. Redeles iii. 200 Coile out þe Knyȝtys þat knowe well hemself. 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy ii. xiii, Chesen out and coyle the chefe iewels. 1530 Palsgr. 498/2 Coyle out the dandyprattes and Yrisshepence, eslisez les dandyprattes et les deniers dIrlande hors de la reste. 1552 Huloet s.v., Coyle or chose out of many, seligo. 1617 Markham Caval. i. 87 The Colt..which is to be coyled and cast away. Ibid. In this coyling of Studs there is great arte and iudgement to be vsed. 1655 L. Thetford Perf. Horseman 15 By no means..make too early coiling. 1708–15 Kersey, Coiling of the Stud, is the first making choice of a Colt, or young Horse, for any service. 1721–1800 in Bailey. |
▪ II. † coil, v.2 Obs.
Also coyle.
[First in 16th c.: origin unknown; connexion with F. cul is perhaps possible: cf. coil v.6]
trans. To beat, thrash. Hence coiled ppl. a.
| 1530 Palsgr. 498/2, I coyle ones kote, I beate hym, je bastonne. 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 7 b, Of a certaine man, somewhat sharpely beatyng a bonde seruaunt..Socrates asked..whether of bothe hath more neede of coiling, ye, or your seruaunt. 1548 ― Erasm. Par. Luke xx. 159 a, When they had sore coyled him, and had reviled him. 1569 T. Preston Cambises Stage Direct., Here draw and fight. Here she must lay on and coyle them both. Ibid. Knave, slave and villain! a coild cote now and than. c 1590 Wife Lapped in Morelles Skin 770 in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 211, I shall her coyle both backe and bone. |
▪ III. coil, v.3
(kɔɪl)
Also 7–8 coile, coyl(e, quoile.
[Goes with coil n.3, neither being as yet traced beyond 1611, though, as nautical words, they were no doubt in spoken use much earlier. The vb. is generally supposed to be identical with F. cueillir to gather, collect, cull, which Littré has as a ‘terme de marine’, ‘plier une manœuvre en rond ou en ellipse’. Cf. the Pg. colher un cabo ‘to coil a cable’ (Vieyra).]
1. a. trans. To lay up (a cable, rope, etc.) in concentric rings; the rings may be disposed above each other, or one ring within another, or over cleats, etc., as is done with small lines, to prevent entanglement. Const. with up.
| 1611 Cotgr., Vrillonner une cable, to coil a cable, to wind or lay it vp round, or in a ring. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. vii. 30 Quoile a Cable, is to lay it up in a round Ring, or fake, one above another. 1708 Motteux Rabelais iv. xxiii. (1737) 97 I'll coyle this Rope. 1719 Glossogr. Angl. Nova, At sea, a rope or cable laid up round, one Fake or turn over another..is said to be quoiled up. a 1785 Glover Athenaid xix. (R.), Our conductor gathered as he stept, A clue, which careful in his hand he coil'd. 1805 Southey Madoc in Azt. xv, When its blow was spent, Swiftly the dextrous spearman coil'd the string, And sped again the artificer of death. 1836 Marryat Midsh. Easy xiv, Directed the two men forward to coil a hawser upon the foregrating. |
| absol. 1833 Marryat P. Simple viii, Tell Mr. Simpkins..to coil away upon the jetty. |
| fig. 1789 Dibdin Song, Poor Jack ii, And, my timbers! what lingo he'd coil and belay. |
b. To lay down in a coil or coils.
| 1915 ‘Bartimeus’ Tall Ship i. 27 A younger man..was busy coiling down something in the bows. |
2. a. To enwrap within coils.
| 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Knt. of Malta ii. i, Coil'd up in a cable, like salt eels, Or buried low i' th' ballast. 1681 Crowne Hen. VI, iv. 46 Well coyl'd round With proofs, that will resist small shot at least. |
b. To enfold in a coil, ensnare. rare.
| 1748 T. Edwards Canons of Criticism Sonn. xxxiv. (1765) 340 Shun follies haunts, and vicious company, Least..Pleasure coil thee in her dangerous snare. |
3. a. To twist in or into a circular, spiral, or winding shape; to twist or wind round (something).
| a 1691 Boyle (J.), Until the pressure of the air, that at first coiled them, be readmitted to do the same thing again. 1711 E. Ward Quix. I. 155 Quoil'd in Dust like Snake or Adder. 1837 Brewster Magnet. 310 Each strand of wire..was coiled several times backward and forward over itself. 1862 Illust. Lond. News XL. 224/1 An Armstrong gun is made of wrought-iron bars coiled into hoops. 1866 Tate Brit. Mollusks iv. 210 The shells of..Planorbis are flat and coiled nearly in the same plane. 1870 T. De W. Talmage Crumbs Swept Up 270 Crimped, or coiled, or bunched, or flumixed their hair. |
b. refl.
| 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 8 You shall see it to winde and coyl itself up like a Spring. 1817 M{supc}Leod Voy. Alceste 305 The snake..now coiled himself up again. c 1828 Broderip in Zool. Jrnl. II, The serpent..coiled himself round the rabbit, and appeared to draw out the dead body through his folds. |
c. to coil up: to twist into a fixed or constrained position.
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) I. 309 Little hoops coil'd up in a spring. 1785 Reid Int. Powers ii. ix. 276 They make a continued chain of ideas coyled up in the brain. 1835 Kingsley Hypatia xix. 218 She sat, coiled up like a snake, on a divan. |
4. intr. (for refl.) To throw oneself into a spiral or winding form, to twist oneself round.
| 1798 Coleridge Anc. Mar. iv. xiii, They coil'd and swam. 1836 Penny Cycl. V. 25/1 The snake..seized the keeper by the left thumb, and coiled round his arm and neck in a moment. 1864 Tennyson En. Ard. 577 The long convolvuluses That coil'd around the stately stems. |
5. intr. To move in a spiral or winding course.
| 1816 W. Taylor Month. Mag. XLI. 329 Like doves..Coiling in sweepy rings with cooings bland. 1866 Motley Dutch Rep. vi. i. 772 He could coil unperceived through unsuspected paths. |
▪ IV. coil, v.4 Naut.
[ad. F. culer said of ship or wind ‘aller en arrière’, f. cul hinder part. Cf. recoil = reculer.]
To turn; cf. weather-coil, -coiling.
| 1804 A. Duncan Mariner's Chron. I. 228 On the 29th, in a severe squall, with a cross-quarter sea, the ship coiling to windward, with her upper deck parts in the water. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Weather-coiling, a ship resuming her course after being taken aback; rounding off by a stern-board, and coming up to it again. |
▪ V. coil, v.5
(kɔɪl)
[f. coil n.5]
To put (hay) into cocks, to cock.
| 1825–80 Jamieson, Kyle, Kyle hay, to put it into cocks. 1829 Hogg Sheph. Calendar I. 256 To coil a part of her father's hay. 1888 Sheffield Gloss. Addenda, Coil or Quoil, to make into large heaps. To coil hay is to throw a number of haycocks together. |
▪ VI. † coil, v.6 Obs. rare.
[app. f. coil n.2; but it might possibly be a sense of coil v.2: cf. beat v. 23.]
To stir (liquids or the like).
| 1677 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. ii. 82 Pour therein [a pot] your Oyl with a quantity of Water, and coil these together with a Spoon till the Water grow darkish. |
▪ VII. † coil, n.1 Obs.
In 6 coyl.
[perh. a vbl. n. from coil v.1 to select.]
? A selection, a choice.
| 1574 B. Googe Lett. to Burghley 15 May, in N. & Q. 7 Mar. 1863. 183/2 We have here a coyl of proper men..whose souldiours..would doo a man goode to behold their servysse. |
▪ VIII. coil, n.2 arch. and dial.
(kɔɪl)
Also 6–7 coyle, quoile, 6–8 coile, 7 coyl, quoyle, 7–8 quoil.
[First in 16th c.: of unknown origin. Prob. a word of colloquial or even slang character, which rose into literary use; many terms of similar meaning have had such an origin; cf. pother, row, rumpus, dirdum, shindy, hubbub, hurly-burly, etc.
The conjectures that coil may be ‘related’ to Gael. coileid (ˈkoletʃ) ‘stir, movement, noise’, or to goilim (ˈgolɪm) ‘I boil’, goileadh, ‘boiling’, or to goill (goʎ) ‘shield, war, fight’, are mere random ‘shots’, without any justification, phonetic or historical. Coil is unknown in Scotland, and no evidence connects it with Ireland. Gaelic or Irish words do not enter English through the air, with phonetic change on the way!]
1. Noisy disturbance, ‘row’; ‘tumult, turmoil, bustle, stir, hurry, confusion’ (J.).
| 1567 Drant Horace Epist. ii. ii. H iij, Againe, thinckes thou that I at Rome my vearses can indyte Mongst so much toyle, and such a coyle, suche soking carke, and spyte. 1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. (1860) 30 Such a quoile, with pro and con such vrging of Ergoes. 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. iii. i. 48 What a coile is there Dromio? who are those at the gate? 1608 L. Machin Dumb Knt. i. i, If my husband should rise from his study, and misse me, we should have such a coile! 1610 B. Jonson Alch. v. iv, Did you not heare the coyle About the dore? 1676 E. Bury Medit. 375 Many great men which..make a great coil, and keep a great stir and bustle in the world. 1728 Swift Mullinix & T., But tell me, Tim, upon the spot, By all this coil what hast thou got? 1860 T. Martin tr. Horace 208 What means this coil? And wherefore be These cruel looks all bent on me? 1884 Holland Cheshire Gloss., Coil, row. |
2. Confused noise of inanimate things; clutter, rattle, confused din.
| 1582 Munday Eng. Rom. Life in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) II. 201 There was such a coyle among the old iron, such ratling and throwing downe the boordes..that I laye almost feared out of my wits. 1633 T. Adams Exp. 2 Peter iii. 3 (1865) 617 But put water to fire, and then you have a thundering coil. 1816 L. Hunt Rimini i. 11 You may hear a coil Of bubbling springs about the grassier soil. |
3. Fuss, ado; a ‘business’.
| 1593 Drayton Idea 262 You Will, and Will not, what a coyle is here? 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 165, I am not worth this coyle that's made for me. 1613 Wither Abuses Stript & Whipt ii. i. Vanity, They might foyle The party faulty e'en with half that quoyle. 1640 Gent Knave in Gr. i. i, I was extream drunke, aske my man Fub else, he'le tell you what a coyle he had with me. 1652 Culpepper Eng. Physic. 255 Physicians make more a quoil than needs behalf about Electuaries. 1692 Hacket Abp. Williams ii. 45 What a coil hath been made to set up consisteries of ministers and ruling elders! 1861 Reade Cloister & H. I. 303 Who makes the coil about nothing now? 1877 N.W. Linc. Gloss., Coil, fuss, bustle. |
4. a. to keep a coil: to keep up a disturbance; make a fuss, bustle, much ado.
| 1568 T. Howell Newe Sonets (1879) 147 Dyd flee from fredom to the courte, Where Venus only keepes the coyle. 1577 Holinshed Chron. II. 743 They kept such a coile against the abbat and moonks, to have certeine ancient charters delivered them. 1587 Golding De Mornay ix. (1617) 140 Proclus and Simplicius keepe a great coyle in maintenance of the eternity of the world. 1611 Cotgr., Grabuger, to keepe a foule coyle, to make a great stirre, or monstrous hurlyburly. 1669 Shadwell Royal Sheph. v. Wks. 1720 I. 295 They all keep such a coile, when they come to die. 1748 Thomson Cast. Indol. i. 35 Still a coil the grasshopper did keep. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. iii. 904 And such sad coil with words of vengeance kept, That our best sleepers started as they slept. |
b. mortal coil: the bustle or turmoil of this mortal life. A Shaksperian expression which has become a current phrase.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. i. 67 What dreames may come, When we haue shufflel'd off this mortall coile, Must giue vs pawse. a 1764 Churchill Poems, Journey II. 8 When the Night Suspends this mortal coil. 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles, i. Introd., Where rest from mortal coil the mighty of the Isles. 1829 I. Taylor Enthus. v. (1867) 108 The Christian..has waited in the coil of mortality only for the moment when he should inspire the ether of the upper world. |
▪ IX. coil, n.3
(kɔɪl)
Also 7–8 coile, coyle, quoyl(e, quoile.
[Goes with coil v.3, from which it is prob. directly formed, like a roll, twist, tie, fold.]
1. orig. A length of cable, rope, etc., when ‘coiled’ or gathered up into a number of concentric rings, either fake over fake, or in a flat disk with the fakes within each other, the latter being termed a Flemish coil; hence, the quantity of cable, etc., usually wound up. Orig. a nautical term.
| 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. 30 A Bight is to hold by any part of a coile, that is the vpmost fake. 1662 Pepys Diary 22 Aug., One from a trap-door above let fall unawares a coyle of cable. 1677 Lond. Gaz. No. 1174/1 Remaining in the Consuls hands 18 Quoyles of Cordage and a Hauser. 1711 Mil. & Sea Dict., A Quoyle is a rope laid up round, one Fake over another. Sometimes it is taken for a whole Rope quoyl'd; so that if half the Rope be cut away, they say, there is but half a Quoyle of that Rope. 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Quoil, The middle of such a ring or quoile, is a good place to lay shot in. 1794 Nelson in Nicolas Disp. (1845) I. 432, I have to request from the Victory two coils of four-inch or four-and-a-half rope. 1864 Tennyson En. Ard. 17 Hard coils of cordage, swarthy fishing-nets. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. 589 When laid up in a flat helix, without riders, beginning in the middle, and ‘with the sun’ it is said to be a Flemish coil. |
2. a. A series of concentric circles or rings in which a pliant body has been disposed; hence, such a disposition or form in a body which is rigid.
| 1661 Boyle Spring of Air (1682) 92 These small coyled particles of the air..when the pressure is taken away..flie abroad into a Coyle or Zone ten times as big in Diameter as before. 1723 Phil. Trans. XXXII. 294 A Snake..lying round in a Coil. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. II. xx. 202 Around him, as a focus, was a coil of men, women, and children. 1858 O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. xii. 111 There was a staircase like a coil of lace. 1862 Illust. Lond. News XL. 136/2 Round which [eggs] the reptile had coiled its length, the head surmounting the coil. 1869 Phillips Vesuv. ii. 11 Black coils of barren lava. |
b. As a disposition of women's hair.
| 1888 Galignani's Messenger 5 Feb. 1 To replace the high-looped coils on the top of the head by braids falling on the neck. Ibid. 2 Brushed up locks and twisted coils. |
c. = mosquito coil s.v. mosquito 2 b.
| 1963, etc. [see mosquito coil s.v. mosquito 2 b]. 1975 D. Malouf Johnno ii. 33 Here too on warm evenings, with a coil burning to keep off the mosquitoes, we sat after tea. 1979 Washington Post 11 June b5/5 Under the name Pic, four coils are 99 cents at Johnson's Flower Center. |
3. A single complete turn or circumvolution of any coiled body; e.g. such as is formed by a serpent or the tendril of a plant.
| 1805 Southey Madoc vii, On came the mighty snake..What then was human strength, if once involved Within those dreadful coils? 1870 Rolleston Anim. Life 58 The Coils of intestine. 1882 Vines Sachs' Bot. 863 The youngest coils of a twining stem are not usually in contact with its support. |
4. a. An arrangement of a wire, piping, sheet metal, etc., in a series of concentric or symmetrical curves or windings.
| 1826 Henry Elem. Chem. I. 169 Zinc and copper sheets formed into coils. 1839 G. Bird Nat. Philos. 222 A copper and zinc plate, each fifty feet long and two wide, rolled into a coil. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 483/1 A compound spring, having a cylinder of vulcanized rubber, with an interior coil to keep it from binding against the spindle, and an exterior spiral coil to keep it from spreading too far. |
b. Electr. A wire wound spirally and serving for the passage of a current of electricity in various kinds of electrical apparatus, as in induction coil, resistance coil, etc.
| 1849 M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sci. xxxiv. 375 In obtaining a brilliant spark with the aid of an electro-dynamic coil. 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (ed. 6) II. xvi. 435 The strengthened magnet instantly reacts upon the coil which feeds it. 1881 Spottiswoode in Nature No. 623. 547 The induction-coil..consists mainly of two parts, viz. a primary coil of thick wire and few convolutions. |
c. A spiral arrangement of pipes used in a heating apparatus, condenser, etc., for the sake of increased heating or cooling surface. Also attrib.
| 1852 Brande Lect. on Arts 213 Heating a fluid by means of a steam-warmed jacket or coil. 1869 E. A. Parkes Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) 135 Boxes containing coils of hot-water pipes. 1884 Health Exhib. Catal. 70/2 Patent Hydro-Pneumatic Coil for heating and ventilating purposes. |
d. An intra-uterine contraceptive device of flexible material shaped into a spiral.
| 1931 Dickinson & Bryant Control of Conception iii. 117 The silkworm coil entirely within the body of the uterus. 1938 R. L. Dickinson Control of Conception (ed. 2) xiii, The intra-uterine coil, as we warily test its possibilities of safe control, may be asked to fit most or all of the following specifications. 1964 A. F. Guttmacher et al. Planning your Family viii. 57 Some of the plastic coils can be inserted by paramedical personnel, such as mid-wives, instead of doctors. 1970 Sunday Times 15 Mar. 50/5 Those who employ other birth-control techniques also have sizeable majorities in favour of the pill: 73 per cent of those using the coil, 72 per cent of those using a diaphragm, [etc.]. |
5. In gun-making: A bar of wrought iron coiled and welded into a cylindrical tube, out of a series of which certain kinds of guns are built up.
| 1859 F. Griffiths Artil. Man. (1862) 190 The Coils..are..shrunk on the barrel. 1862 Illust. Lond. News XL. 224/1 The length of the bars required for the different coils vary from 12 to 100 ft., and we saw an immense coil for hooping the exterior of a muzzle-loading gun which was made from a bar of the extraordinary length of 120 ft. Ibid. 224/2 The coiling-machine can turn out more than twenty coils per day equal to about three to four guns. |
6. A roll of postage stamps, usu. perforated only vertically or horizontally, for use in a stamp-vending machine.
| 1908 Sci. Amer. 18 Apr. 280/2 The stamps are arranged in a long strip, which is wound on a brass roller or core. The coil of stamps is placed in an inclined trough and the end of the strip passes over a drum to the stamp slot. 1920 Stanley Gibbons Priced Catal. Stamps (ed. 29) I. 107/2 The stamps imperf. x perf. 8 were sold in coils over the counter; those perf. 8 x imperf. were on sale in automatic machines. 1925 F. J. Melville U.S. Postage Stamps ii. 25 The sidewise coil stamps are wider than the flat-plate printed stamps. 1939 P. Hamilton Hundred Years of Postage Stamps xi. 190 Stamps which are issued in coils for use in stamp vending or stamp affixing machines..are normally imperforate on opposite sides. 1971 D. Potter Brit. Eliz. Stamps vi. 67 Booklets and coils presented further colour variations. 1982 J. Mackay Guinness Bk. Stamps 63 Only one coil of 500 stamps was produced. |
7. Comb. coil-drag (see quot.); coil-end, -plate, a plate for supporting a coil of pipes; coil ignition, a system of ignition in internal combustion engines in which the low-voltage current of the battery is converted to a high voltage by means of an induction coil; coil pot, a pot, the sides of which are constructed from rolls or coils of clay (cf. coiling vbl. n.1 d); coil spring, a volute spring, spec. in the springing of motor cars.
| 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Coil-drag, a tool to pick up pebbles, bits of iron, etc., from the bottom of a drill-hole. |
| 1882 Worcester Exhib. Catal. iii. 5 One Coil end for Stack of 2-in. pipes. |
| 1911 G. C. Sherrin Montagu Motor Bk. iv. 99 The apparatus necessary for the ignition system known as the accumulator and coil ignition. 1930 Engineering 17 Oct. 501/1 Coil ignition is employed, the contact maker and distributor being mounted directly above, and driven from, the vertical lubricating pump-shaft. 1935 Economist 7 Dec. 1144/2 In the early days of motoring, coil ignition was practically universal. 1937 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XLI. 413 Results obtained on a modern coil ignition system operated by a double contact-breaker with a small angle of open circuit. |
| 1893 Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst. 1892 537 There are the coil pots, as are found in mounds and cliff dwellings. 1960 H. Powell Beginner's Bk. Pott. i. iii. 29 Slab and coil pots form the basis of the majority of hand⁓made pots. |
| [a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 589/1 Coiled spring, a metallic spring laid up in a spiral.] 1890 Webster s.v. spring, The principal varieties of springs used in mechanisms are the spiral spring, the coil spring, [etc.]. 1959 Motor Man. (ed. 36) v. 114 Every reader will be familiar with coil springs (to use the popular term for helical springs). |
▪ X. † coil, n.4 Obs.
[ad. F. cul breech, with the frequent interchange of oi and Fr. u. Cf. coil v.4]
1. The breech of a gun.
| 1706 Phillips, Coil..also the breach of a great Gun. 1762 Compl. Gunner i. iv. 5 All the metal behind the touch⁓hole [is called] the Breach or Coyl. |
2. In the combination level-coil (F. lever-le-cul), ‘hitch-buttock’.
▪ XI. coil, n.5 north. and midl.
(kɔɪl)
Also quoil, quile, kyle.
[Of uncertain derivation: perh. to be referred, like coil n.1, to OF. coillir to gather. It is not easy to connect it phonetically with coll, cole in same sense.]
A cock of hay.
| ? a 1800 Clerk Saunders vii. in Child Ballads (1885) III. 233/2 O, bonny, bonny sang the bird, Sat on the coil o hay. 1828 Hogg in Blackw. Mag. XXIII. 218 A dozen coils of hay. 1825–80 Jamieson, Kyle of Hay, a hay-cock, the small heap into which hay is at first gathered when it is raked from the ground. South of Sc. 1881 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Quile, quoil, a heap of hay from which the cart is loaded. 1888 Sheffield Gloss. Addenda, Quoil or Coil, a number of haycocks thrown together. |
▪ XII. † coil, n.6 Obs.
[Possibly some error. Halliwell has Caul a coop, Kent.]
See quot.
| 1691 Ray N.C. Words, Coil, a hen-coil, a hen-pen. |
▪ XIII. coil, coill
obs. Sc. forms of coal.