spinning-jenny
[f. spinning vbl. n. or ppl. a. + jenny. The reason for this use of the personal name is uncertain.]
1. An early form of spinning-machine (introduced by James Hargreaves about 1764–7 and patented in 1770) in which several spindles were set in motion by a band from one wheel.
| 1783 Trans. Soc. Arts I. 34 The construction of this kind of Machine, called a Spinning Jenny, has since been improved. 1792 A. Young Trav. France 269 So many spinning jennies have been destroyed by the people..that the trade is in a deplorable situation. 1816 Ann. Reg., Chron. 70/1 Demanding that he should give up a machine called a spinning jenny by the use of which they imagined them⁓selves aggrieved. 1856 Bryant Rhode Isl. Coal xiv, Thou..shalt be The moving soul of many a spinning-jenny. |
| attrib. 1826 Cobbett Weekly Reg. LVIII. 79 The unhappy creatures who have sweated out their lives in the spinning-jenny regions. 1834 Tait's Mag. I. 383 One Peel, a spinning-jenny fellow. |
| fig. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. x, The basest of created animalcules, the Spider itself, has a spinning-jenny..within its head. |
2. (Part of) a gambling apparatus.
| 1879 H. A. Simmons Ernest Struggles iv. 72 To the ceiling of the taproom was fixed what the men called a ‘spinning jenny’, which was a revolving hand, like that on a clock, with a number of figures round it. It was with this that the customers won and lost pots of beer. 1897 Daily News 9 June 3/3 Charged with gambling with a ‘spinning jenny’ at Hurst Park Racecourse... He had a table coloured red, white, and black, and was turning a rod or ‘spinning jenny’. |
Hence
spinning-jennyish a.| 1841 Hood Tale Trumpet 157 Thoughts in the process of fabrication, By a Spinning-Jennyish operation. |