▪ I. reeling, vbl. n.1
(ˈriːlɪŋ)
[f. reel v.1 + -ing1.]
The action of staggering, etc.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce xiii. 265 The king Robert be thair relyng Saw thai war neir discomfyting. 1495 Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. (W. de W.) v. xx. 126 The passyons of the teeth ben dyuers..brekynge, and brusynge.., relynge and wag[ging] and fallynge. a 1500 Peebles to Play ii, For reiling thair micht na man rest, For garray and for glew. a 1591 H. Smith Six Serm. (1594) 89 As if he should say, neither the winds blowing..nor the ships reeling..should..waken him from his sleepe. 1607–12 Bacon Ess., Counsel (Arb.) 312 They will..be full of inconstancye,..like the reeling of a drunken Man. 1664 H. More Myst. Iniq. 329 Singing and dancing and drinking and reeling were usual concomitants of all the Pagan Holy-days. 1736 E. Erskine Serm. Wks. 1871 II. 406 The Avenger of thy blood will take care of thee in public reelings. 1781 Cowper Conversat. 862 Though such continual zigzags in a book, Such drunken reelings, have an awkward look. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 69 [A gait] in which there is unsteadiness, titubation, and reeling like a drunken man. |
| Comb. 1610 Shakes. Temp. v. i. 279 Trinculo is reeling ripe: where should they Finde this grand Liquor that hath gilded 'em? 1706 E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 100 When he's reeling drunk ashore, he takes it for granted to be a Storm abroad. |
▪ II. reeling, vbl. n.2
(ˈriːlɪŋ)
[f. reel v.2 + -ing1.]
1. a. The action of winding on a reel. Also concr., reeled yarn or the like.
| 1589 Rider Bibl. Schol., A Reeling, alabratio. 1603 Dekker Grissil v. i, Janiculo, leave your fish-catching, and you your reeling. 1653 Public Gen. Acts 179 Abuses..in the Reeling of the Yarns. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Reel, The reel used..in the reeling or winding of silks. 1789 Trans. Soc. Arts VII. 143 It was..afterwards reeled off from those bobbins, and in the reeling passed through warm water. 1803 W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. I. 432 The purchases [of silk] are made about the end of August when the reelings terminate. 1884 M{supc}Laren Spinning (ed. 2) 235 The processes of twisting, reeling, and scouring. 1894 Cassell's New Technical Educator IV. 369/1 The reelings are then weighed and made up into bundles. 1906 W. Macfarlane Princ. & Pract. Iron & Steel Manuf. iv. 47 Bars for certain purposes are straightened by reeling. 1952 F. H. Norris Paper & Paper Making xvii. 246 There are also the faults..which in turn will add their quota of troubles in supercalendering and reeling. 1973 J. G. Tweeddale Materials Technol. II. iv. 95 A simplified form of a two-high mill of this kind can be used for straightening rolls and tubes by causing spiral flexture [sic] in the cold condition, a process called reeling. 1974 Encycl. Brit. Macropædia XVIII. 173/2 Reeling is the process of unwinding raw silk filament from the cocoon directly onto a holder. |
b. attrib. and Comb., as reeling apparatus, reeling arrangement, reeling drive, reeling establishment, reeling machine, reeling stick.
| 1598 Florio, Indeuenatoio, a reeler or reeling sticke. 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 265 The reeling apparatus used in France. 1853 ― Dict. Arts (ed. 4) II. 616 The cocoons are prepared at the reeling establishment into raw silk. Ibid., The reeling machines in the Tyrol. 1887 Encycl. Brit. XXII. 61/2 A sectional view of the reeling apparatus and arrangements..is shown in fig. 12. 1904 Harbord & Hall Metallurgy of Steel xxxii. 506 Both are passed through the reeling machine. This consists of a pair of conical rolls, revolving both in the same direction, and lying side by side, their axes being placed, not horizontally, but inclined to the horizon a few degrees in opposite directions, so as to cross each other at a slight angle in the middle of their length. 1926 J. B. Walker Story of Steel xii. 117 The next step is to pass the tube..through what is known as the reeling machine... In this operation any mill⁓scale is removed; the tubes are given a smooth, burnished surface. 1962 G. A. T. Burdett Automatic Control Handbk. vii. 9 This is the basis of a large number of electronic control schemes embracing..coiling and reeling drives [etc.]. 1971 W. K. V. Gale Iron & Steel Industry: Dict. Terms 168 Reeling machine, a machine which straightens round steel bars by passing them between specially shaped rollers which induce reverse bending. |
2. The production of a humming sound.
| 1747 R. Maxwell Bee-Master (1750) 35 This reeling is occasioned, by a great many of the Bees flying, and making a confused Motion and Noise in the..Hive. 1899 Longm. Mag. Dec. 152 It was more sustained than the longest reeling of the grasshopper warbler that I have heard. |
▪ III. reeling, ppl. a.
(ˈriːlɪŋ)
[f. reel v.1 + -ing2.]
1. That reels, in senses of the vb.
| 1577 Holinshed Chron. I. 69/1 Honorius, perceiuing the reeling state of the empire, determined foorthwith to recouer it. 1602 Marston Ant. & Mel. i. Wks. 1856 I. 17 With that he totterd from the reeling decke, And downe he sunke. 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. iii. Ad §16. 177 With troubled spirits and a reeling faith. 1697 Dryden Virg. Past. v. 46 Daphnis did Rites to Bacchus first ordain; And holy Revels for his reeling Train. 1768 Ross Helenore i. 55 The man..in his fury, an' in his reeling eyn, Thinks that the ane he wanted she had been. 1781 Cowper Expost. 306 War lays a burden on the reeling state. 1849 Longfellow Building the Ship 242 The stress and the strain Of the wind and the reeling main. |
2. Characterized by reeling; causing to reel.
| 1614 Markham Cheap Husb. iv. x. (1668) 99 If your Goats be troubled with the Staggers or Reeling Evil. 1875 Manning Mission H. Ghost ii. 54 That sort of gross reeling intoxication by which men..shame themselves in the streets. 1896 Westm. Gaz. 27 Feb. 1/1 The Liberal Party suffered a reeling blow yesterday. |
Hence ˈreelingly adv.
| 1621 Lady M. Wroth Urania 481 Suddenly, and reelingly he ran with his last fury vpon him. 1657 J. Sergeant Schism Dispach't 62 Is this a sober discourse, which falls reelingly to the ground of it self, when none pushes it? |