▪ I. spinning, vbl. n.
(ˈspɪnɪŋ)
[f. spin v. + -ing1.]
I. 1. a. The action or operation of converting fibres into thread or yarn by hand-labour or by machinery.
Freq. also in combs., as cotton-spinning, flax-spinning.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 261/18 With spinningue and with seuwingue. c 1386 Chaucer Wife's Prol. 401 Deceite, weping, spinning god hath yive To wommen kindely. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. x. 74 That þei wiþ spynnynge may spare [they] spenen hit in hous-hyre. 1440 York Mem. Bk. (Surtees) I. 78 That noon..make no capez nother of meld woll nor meld garn, nother of thair awne spynnyng nor bought spon. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. 49 b, A woman can nat get her lyuynge honestly w{supt} spynnynge on the dystaffe. 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 109 Sowe hemp and flacks, that spinning lacks. 1685 Baxter Paraphr. N.T. Matt. vi. 28 Christ here neither blameth Sowing, Spinning, or other meer labour. 1756 Dyer Fleece iii. 59 A diff'rent spinning every diff'rent web Asks from your glowing fingers. 1770 Langhorne Plutarch (1851) 29/1 She was not to be employed in any other labour but that of spinning. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 404 The various modes of preparing flax for the operation of spinning. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2272/2 The spinning of flax resembles the throstle-spinning of cotton. |
| fig. 1818 Byron Juan i. vii, I shall open with a line (Although it cost me half an hour in spinning). |
b. The operation of producing a thread of some viscid material.
| 1753 Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. s.v., By making the viscous liquor..pass through a fine perforation in the organ appointed for this spinning. 1815 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1818) I. 408 The same preliminary step which the spider adopts in spinning. |
c. The process or action of drawing into a thread;
spec. the process of forming a man-made fibre by drawing or extruding a melt or viscous solution of a polymer through a spinneret;
dry spinning,
melt spinning,
wet spinning: (see
quots. 1974).
| 1883 Haldane Workshop Rec. Ser. ii. 165/2 Spinning.—Proficiency in this requires much practice... Dip a tablespoon in the sugar [etc.]. 1896 Jrnl. Soc. Chem. Industry 30 May 317/2 The production of a lustrous thread of cellulose in continuous length, by the process of drawing or ‘spinning’ is..an accomplished fact. 1910 A. F. Barker Textiles iii. 59 Vanduara silk is obtained by using gelatine as a basis, the threads, after spinning, being treated with formaldehyde to render them insoluble in water. 1927 T. Woodhouse Artificial Silk v. 37 Coagulation may be effected in warm air by so called ‘dry-spinning’, when the solvents can be vaporized by such air. 1963 A. J. Hall Textile Sci. ii. 75 With the introduction of nylon an entirely new method of fibre spinning was established—so-called melt-spinning in which the polymer..is melted in a novel device above the spinneret so that it can..be extruded through the multi-holed spinneret into cold air. 1974 Encycl. Brit. Macropædia VII. 258/2 In wet spinning, the solution of fibre-forming material is extruded into a coagulating bath that causes the jets to harden. Ibid., In dry spinning the fibre-forming substance is dissolved in a solvent before the solution is extruded. As the jets of solution emerge from the spinneret, a stream of hot air causes the solvent to evaporate from the spinning solution, leaving solid filaments. Ibid., In melt spinning the fibre-forming material is melted and extruded through spinnerets, and the jets harden into solid filaments as they cool on emerging from the spinneret. |
2. The product of this operation; the thread or yarn spun.
| c 1511 1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.) Introd. p. xxxv/1 Of that same spynnyng we make our clothynge. 1711 Lond. Gaz. No. 4850/3, 30 Pound weight of Legois Spinnings. 1887 Daily News 5 Nov. 2/5 In higher numbers and best spinnings there is a moderate amount of business. 1892 Ibid. 3 Aug. 2/6 Most spinnings were quoted at a slight advance. |
3. The action of protracting or drawing
out to undue length; an instance of this.
| 1644 D. P. P. (title), The Six Secondary Causes of the Spinning out of this Unnaturall Warre. 1736 Fielding Pasquin iv. i, The practical rules of writing,..the first and greatest of which is protraction, or the art of spinning. 1780 Wesley Wks. (1872) XIV. 295, I was indeed a little disgusted with the spinning out of the story. 1830 H. N. Coleridge Grk. Poets (1834) 268 The injudicious spinnings out of a shorter primitive text. |
4. a. The action of turning or whirling round; rapid revolution.
| 1814–24 P. Hawker Instr. Yng. Sportsm. 175 To prevent a counteraction to the spinning of the minnow. 1858 Greener Gunnery 278 Unscientifically formed projectiles..have to receive a counteracting agency in the shape of additional spinning. 1866 Airy Pop. Astron. v. (1868) 184 In consequence of its spinning, the inclination of CP to CQ does not sensibly alter. |
b. Of a motor clutch: the fault of continuing to revolve after being disengaged.
| 1913 W. E. Dommett Motor Car Mech. 125 The clutch shaft has a coned brake which prevents ‘spinning’ when gear changing. 1948 A. W. Judge Mod. Motor Engineer (ed. 4) II. 305 In some cases the use of a thicker lubricant in the gear-box will prevent clutch spinning. |
c. Aeronaut. The action of an aircraft when in a spin (
spin n.1 2 d).
| 1915 Aeroplane 10 Nov. 578/2 It is always possible to avoid spinning or side-slipping in fog or cloud. 1930 Nayler & Ower Aviation To-day 324 Spinning..was first started in the War as a means to bewilder, or escape from, the enemy. 1977 R.A.F. News 27 Apr.–10 May 11/4 The Phantom pilots go up with an instructor for a twice-yearly check-out in the trials and tribulations of spinning. |
5. The action of angling with a spinning bait.
| 1855 Kingsley Glaucus (1878) 22 There is good spinning with a brass minnow round the angles of the rocks. 1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Rural Sports 254/1 Spinning for perch is practised as follows. 1870 Pennell Mod. Pract. Angler 123 In all sorts of spinning..a good breeze is usually an advantage. |
6. The operation of shaping metallic substances by means of a turning-lathe. Also
concr.| 1857 R. Hunt Guide Mus. Pract. Geol. (1859) 188 Sheet metal prepared for the process of ‘spinning’. 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. 840/1 Spinning, a mode of forming silver and other ductile metal into shapes. 1927 Daily Tel. 11 May 18/6 To place orders for general metal spinnings. 1964 H. Hodges Artifacts iv. 74 The method of shaping bronze vessels known as spinning is virtually a mechanical form of raising. 1973 J. G. Tweeddale Materials Technol. II. iv. 86 Spinning has certain similarities to panel-beating. |
II. attrib. 7. (In sense 1.)
a. Misc., as
spinning-mistress,
spinning-process,
spinning-time,
spinning-work.
| 1608 Willet Hexapla Exod. Ded. 2, The women..vse euery yeere to shew publikely their spinning work. 1677 A. Yarranton Eng. Improv. 159 Send for a Spinning Mistriss out of Germany, to..govern the little Maids, and instruct them in the Art of Spinning. 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 37 The top Leaves..being most proper to feed the Worms towards their Spinning time. 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 14 The carding, drawing, roving, and spinning processes of a cotton-mill. 1899 Daily News 16 Jan. 9/4 The spinning end of the trade has been characterised by a fair amount of briskness. |
b. In terms denoting appliances or machinery, or parts of these, employed in spinning, as
spinning-engine,
spinning-frame,
spinning-hook,
spinning-machine,
spinning nozzle, etc.; also in terms denoting substances that are spun to form man-made fibres, as
spinning dope,
spinning solution,
spinning syrup.
| 1959 Times Rev. Industry Sept. 5/3 There has been an expansion in the production of man-made fibres, already coloured during their spinning by the addition of pigments to the *spinning dope. |
| 1678 Patent Office No. 202. 1 A new *Spining Engin whereby Six to an hundred Spinners and vpwards may be imployed by the Strength of one or two Persons. |
| 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 387 The cotton..is carried to the *spinning-frame. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. II. 337/2 The transition from Arkwright's spinning-frame..to the throstle-frame was easy enough. |
| 1788 ? Burns D. Davison 15 Then Meg took up her *spinnin'-graith, And flang them a' out o'er the burn. |
| 1750 T. R. Blanckley Nav. Expos. 80 *Spinning hooks are drove into the Rails for the Ropemakers to hang their threads on, as they spin them. |
| c 1790 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) V. 488 The rapid operations of the new *spinning machines. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. II. 43/1 Paul's spinning-machine patent..is dated 1738. 1899 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 8 Dec. 63/2 The filtering is to eliminate every particle of suspended matter which may exist in the collodion before it arrives at the spinning machines. 1975 J. Kasparek in E. Dyson Rotor Spinning x. 161 (heading) Processing of man-made staple fibres on the..rotor spinning machine. |
| 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 446 It is not meant..to condemn the introduction of *spinning-machinery. |
| 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 273 The machine for twisting the single threads of silk..is called the *spinning-mill. |
| 1844 G. Dodd Textile Manuf. i. 18 Crompton, of Bolton, who invented the ‘*spinning-mule’. |
| 1914 Chem. Abstr. VIII. 258 A process and device for perforating and cleaning the capillary tube of *spinning nozzles for artificial silk manufacture. 1921 T. Woodhouse tr. J. Foltzer's Artificial Silk xix. 192 The spinning nozzles or spinnerets, from which separate threads..issue. 1931 S. E. & E. R. Trotman Artificial Silks 49 The spinning nozzle consists of a head or rose containing a number of capillary apertures through which the spinning solution enters the coagulating bath or evaporating chamber. |
| a 1693 Urquhart's Rabelais iii. xxviii. (1737) III. 395 Wouldst thou..slander the *spinning-quills..of the weird sisters, Parcæ. |
| 1921 T. Woodhouse tr. J. Foltzer's Artificial Silk vi. 40 When the solution of the cotton is complete, the *spinning solution begins to decompose, unless it is kept at a low temperature. 1973 O. Steinerová tr. B. Piller's Bulked Yarns xi. 434 The latter [sc. viscose staple fibres] were made dyeable by acid wool dyes due to addition of protein particles to the spinning solution. |
| 1973 Materials & Technology VI. iv. 290 The *spinning syrup has to be extruded through very tiny holes in the spinneret. |
| 1730 Phil. Trans. XXXVI. 337 As the Spill of a *Spinning-Turn is moved. |
| 1865 Lubbock Preh. Times 163 Earthenware *spinning-weights. |
| 1895 A. C. Haddon Evol. Art 177 These patterns are delineated on masks, posts, *spinning-whorls, and other objects. |
c. In terms denoting places where spinning is carried on, as
spinning-factory,
spinning-floor,
spinning gallery,
spinning-ground,
spinning-mill,
spinning-place, etc.
| 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 351 At the elegant *spinning-factory of Egerton, near Bolton. |
| 1890 W. J. Gordon Foundry 164 Finally it reaches the *spinning-floor. |
| 1956 R. W. McDowell in W. A. Singleton Stud. Archit. History II. 133 Reference must be made to the ‘*spinning galleries’..an attractive feature of some....Lakeland villages. 1976 G. Moffat Short Time to Live xi. 115 ‘What's brought you to Sandale?’.. ‘Vernacular architecture, sir... Interiors too: spice cupboards, stone stairways, spinning galleries.’ |
| 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 419 There are two railways..fixed along the *spinning-ground or rope-walk. |
| 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 334 The better wages and steadier employment of their great *spinning-mills. |
| 1689 in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1883) I. 312 A *spinning place at y⊇ entrance into y⊇ town field. 1692 Ibid., A spinning place..for making cables. |
| 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 400 That the *spinning-rooms in a cotton factory can be crowded is utterly impossible. |
| 1677 A. Yarranton Eng. Improv. 47 After a young Maid hath been three years in the *Spinning School..she will get eight pence the day. 1799 [A. Young] Agric. Linc. 441, I made many inquiries concerning the present state of the spinning schools. |
d. In terms relating to the spinneret of spiders, etc., as
spinning gland,
spinning organ,
spinning-tube,
spinning tubuli,
spinning-wart.
| 1841 T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. 317 At the base of the external spinning tubuli. 1878 F. J. Bell Gegenbaur's Comp. Anat. 250 The spinning glands of Spiders are further differentiations of dermal glands. Ibid. 291 In others this pair of stigmata is fused, and lies in front of the spinning-warts. 1885 M{supc}Cook Tenants Old Farm 136 The spinning-tubes at the end of the abdomen. 1890 Science-Gossip XXVI. 130 The spinning organs of various kinds of spiders. |
8. a. spinning-top,
= top n.2 1.
| 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 5 The spinning-top whirl'd from the twitching string. 1862 Gifts & Graces xviii. 177 Many..a spinning-top, or popgun, had reached him from the hand of the kind squire. 1879 [see peery n.]. |
b. spinning-rod,
spinning-tackle, etc. (see
spin v. 12).
| 1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Rural Sports 263/2 The Spinning-Tackle for salmon. 1870 Pennell Mod. Pract. Angler 52 A trolling and spinning rod of about the stiffness I find preferable. |
c. spinning tunnel, a wind tunnel with a vertical air flow for testing the behaviour of model aircraft in simulated spins. Also
free-spinning tunnel.
| 1934 Rep. & Mem. Aeronaut. Res. Committee No. 1578. 2 Tests in the Free Spinning Tunnel were accordingly projected as a check upon the validity of the results which could be obtained with small dynamical models. Ibid. 12 In the spinning tunnel the models are usually about 1/25 scale, and thus the rate of rotation is about five times that of the full scale spin. 1937 Technical Rep. Aeronaut. Res. Committee 1936 I. 452 The R.A.E. Free Spinning Tunnel was brought into use in 1932 to examine the spinning properties of various existing and projected designs of aeroplanes. 1939 Ibid. 1937 I. 552 The effect of mass distribution has been explored as a matter of routine on all designs tested in the spinning tunnel. 1947 A. Pope Wind-Tunnel Testing i. 10 The NACA has two free-spinning tunnels, one 15 ft in diameter, the other 20 ft. |
d. spinning magnetometer = spinner magnetometer s.v. spinner 11.
| 1960 Archaeometry III. 47 The great advantage that a spinning magnetometer has over the astatic type is that it can be used in a normal laboratory in the presence of a relatively large amount of local magnetic interference. 1963 R. M. Cook in Brothwell & Briggs Science in Archaeol. i. v. 64 In the spinning magnetometer the sample is rotated continuously to produce an alternating current. |
▸
orig. U.S. The action of riding a stationary bicycle, usually as part of a group session accompanied by music, as an aerobic fitness activity.
| 1994 U.S. News & World Rep. 16 May 86/1 Spinning—or RPM, as it is sometimes called—is done on a sleek stationary cycle that is modeled after a real racing bike, usually to throbbing dance music. 1997 N.Y. Times 20 Aug. b4/3 In one script, Ellen joins one of the new ‘spinning’ exercise class [sic] and discovers she is attracted to the instructor. 2001 Elle June 34/1, I was taking a spinning class at my gym recently, and the instructor kept yelling things at us like ‘You've got to work harder to get the body you want!’ |
▪ II. ˈspinning, ppl. a. [f. spin v.] 1. That spins or produces thread.
| 1634 Milton Comus 715 Millions of spinning Worms, That..weave the smooth-hair'd silk. 1708 Sewel ii, Spinster, a Spinning-woman. 1736 Gentl. Mag. VI. 681 You May, like Arachne, dare to vie, With any spinning Deity. 1840 tr. Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 460 The second section of the sedentary and rectigrade Spiders—that of the Inequitelæ or Spinning Spiders. 1891 Cent. Dict., Spinning-mite, any mite or acarid of the family Tetraonychidæ; a red-spider. |
2. That spouts or gushes.
rare.
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 143 It easeth straight the flaming feuers paine, If in the foote you strike the spinning vaine. |
3. That revolves, gyrates, or turns round.
spinning reserve (
Electr. Engin.), reserve power-generating capacity which is available to meet sudden increases in load.
| 1854 Ct. E. de Warren tr. De Sauley's Journ. Dead Sea II. 273 A spinning dervise usually resides in the Grotto of Jeremiah. 1867 F. Francis Angling i. 30 The chub..will run equally at a spinning-bait, or a live minnow. 1869 Ruskin Q. of Air Pref. p. vii, A newly-constructed artificial rockery, with a fountain twisted through a spinning spout. 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 56 Artificial Spinning Baits, Flies and Insects. 1932 Rep. Proposed Amer. Stand. Defs. Electr. Terms (Amer. Inst. Electr. Engineers) 62/2 Spinning reserve is that reserve generating capacity connected to the bus and ready to take load. 1974 Times 21 Jan. 15/6 These ‘spinning reserves’ are carried on plant which is generating power, but not fully loaded. 1979 ‘A. Hailey’ Overload i. i. 5 GSP & L's last spinning reserve had been brought to full load. |
| transf. 1862 Pycroft Cricket Tutor 35 Spinning bowling is always liable to turn in or to break away contrary to all expectation. |
4. colloq. Rapid, fast.
| 1882 Society 16 Dec. 4/2 The Cambridgeshire enjoyed a spinning run. |
Hence
ˈspinningly adv.| 1923 Daily Mail 19 May 6 The ball is cracked spinningly through the gap between point and third man. |