ˈfine-ˌspun, a.
[f. fine adv. + spun ppl. a.]
1. Spun or drawn out to extreme tenuity; delicate in texture, flimsy.
| 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. Ep. Ded., When men had wrought up all the Woman within them that was feeble and glowing, into a fine-spun thread. 1704 F. Fuller Med. Gymn. (1718) 20 The Solids are so fine-spun. 1798 W. Sotheby tr. Wieland's Oberon (1826) II. 152 Fine-spun as if aërial spiders wove a web to deck, not hide the form of love. 1856 R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. 33 The fine-spun, gay-coloured ribbons of allegory. |
2. fig. Elaborated to flimsiness, excessively subtle or refined.
| 1647 Sir R. Fanshawe tr. Guarino's Pastor Fido ii. vi. 13 That Mistresse in the art of making The fine-spun lyes, that sels so deer False words, false hopes and a false leer. 1719 W. Wood Surv. Trade 161, I am an Enemy to the fine-spun Notions, some Men do..advance concerning them. 1842 Emerson Nat., Transcendentalist Wks. (Bohn) II. 280 The materialist..mocks at fine-spun theories. |