spun, ppl. a.
(spʌn)
[Pa. pple. of spin v.]
1. That has undergone the process of spinning; formed, fabricated, or prepared by spinning: a. Of wool, silk, or other material; also spec. of normally rigid materials, as glass. Comb., esp. as spun-dyed adj., of materials coloured during spinning.
Also in earlier use as the second element in combs., as evil-spun, ill-spun (see those words).
| 1486 Bk. St. Albans, Her. f iij b, For as mych as weueris vse sich fusillys made of sponnyn woll. 1570 Levins Manip. 188 Spunne, filatus. 1608 Willet Hexapla Exod. 575 Women did spinne with their hands and brought the spunne worke. 1759 Phil. Trans. LI. 390 The stockings..were wove of carded and spun silk. 1779 Ibid. LXX. 51 Long filaments of a vitrified matter like spun-glass. 1842 Penny Cycl. XXIV. 401/1 Two or more yarns, or simple spun threads, firmly united together by twisting. 1868 Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 291 The Murray mill..will be employed in weaving broad goods of net warps and ‘spun’ fillings. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2292/2 Spun-silk, a cheap article produced from short-fibered and waste silk, in contradistinction to the long fibers wound from the cocoon and thrown. 1899 Jrnl. Soc. Arts XLVIII. 62/1 Spun glass is probably the earliest production which resembles natural silk. 1936 H. Miller Black Spring 192 Suddenly like spun-glass under a blue flame, the street quickens into tongues of fire. 1940 Engineering 1 Nov. 343/3 The advantages of such spun-concrete products as pipes and poles are well known. 1947 J. C. Rich Materials & Methods of Sculpture iv. 64 Spun-copper bowls are highly recommended for use in mixing plaster of Paris. 1980 Nature 14 Feb. p. xiii/2 The body is a spun steel bowl and lid on die cast iron base. |
| Comb. 1862 Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 3900, Velvet and plush, made from spun silk waste. 1887 Encycl. Brit. XXII. 66/1 The spun-silk industry has chiefly developed in the Yorkshire and Lancashire textile centres. 1955 Cockett & Hilton Basic Chem. Textile Colouring & Finishing i. 34 Spun-coloured or pigmented fibres. These are sometimes known as spun-dyed fibres, although the method of colouration is not a dyeing process in the usual sense. 1975 R. H. Peters Textile Chem. III. i. 4 Other ways of colouring with insoluble compounds are to introduce them in fibre manufacture, i.e. in the polymer solution prior to extrusion giving ‘spun-dyed’ filaments. |
b. spun gold,
spun silver, a silk thread wound with gold, silver-gilt, or silver wire. Hence
spun-golden adj.| 1728 Chambers Cycl., Gold Thread, or Spun Gold, is the flatted Gold wrapp'd, or laid over a Thread of Silk, by twisting it with a Wheel, and Iron Bobins. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2292/2. 1966 T. Pynchon Crying of Lot 49 i. 21 Frail girls with heart-shaped faces, huge eyes, spun-gold hair. 1978 S. Sheldon Bloodline ii. 40 She had spun-golden hair and skin as delicate as porcelain. |
c. Of butter or sugar: Drawn out or worked up into a thread-like form,
esp. for ornamenting confectionery or other dishes.
| 1834 H. Martineau Farrers ii. 20 A yellow lamb of spun butter. 1846 A. Soyer Cookery 549 You have previously formed some ropes of spun sugar. 1861 Geo. Eliot Silas M. iii, Spun butter in all its freshness. 1872 O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf.-t. iv, If you don't leave your spun-sugar confectionery business. |
d. Applied to vegetable protein,
esp. soya, that has been spun into fibres so as to resemble meat and to the meat substitutes made from it.
| 1973 Guardian 21 Apr. 12/3 ‘Spun steak.’ Looks like steak..only it is made of spun soya. 1976 T. Heald Let Sleeping Dogs Die v. 81 Canine comestibles... Doggy buckwheat..spun protein tripe. |
e. ellipt. Spun silk or yarn.
| 1868 Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 290, 60,000 pounds of thrown silk, 60,000 pounds of ‘patent spun’, 100,000 pieces of belt ribbons [etc.]. 1892 Daily News 24 Sept. 2/6 Yarns, no improvement yet noted in position of dry spuns, wet spuns are in pretty good demand. |
2. With
out. Unduly prolonged or protracted.
| 1869 K. H. Digby Little Low Bushes 244 Carheil is like a long and spun-out speech. 1879 Grove's Dict. Mus. I. 645/2 We can pardon a few awkward or tedious phrases, a few spun-out passages. |