Spin /(spĭn)/

Spin

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Spun; imp. Span; p. pr. & vb. n. Spinning

  1. To draw out, and twist into threads, either by the hand or machinery; as, to spin wool, cotton, or flax; to spin goat's hair; to produce by drawing out and twisting a fibrous material. Archaic
    All the yarn she [Penelope] spun in Ulysses' absence did but fill Ithaca full of moths.
  2. To draw out tediously; to form by a slow process, or by degrees; to extend to a great length; -- with out; as, to spin out large volumes on a subject.
    Do you mean that story is tediously spun out?
    — Sheridan.
  3. To protract; to spend by delays; as, to spin out the day in idleness.
    By one delay after another they spin out their whole lives.
  4. To cause to turn round rapidly; to whirl; to twirl; as, to spin a top.
  5. To form (a web, a cocoon, silk, or the like) from threads produced by the extrusion of a viscid, transparent liquid, which hardens on coming into contact with the air; -- said of the spider, the silkworm, etc.
  6. To shape, as malleable sheet metal, into a hollow form, by bending or buckling it by pressing against it with a smooth hand tool or roller while the metal revolves, as in a lathe. (Mech.)

Phrases & Compounds
To spin a yarn
to tell a story, esp. a long or fabulous tale.
To spin hay
to twist it into ropes for convenient carriage on an expedition.
To spin street yarn
to gad about gossiping.

Spin

v. i.
  1. To practice spinning; to work at drawing and twisting threads; to make yarn or thread from fiber; as, the woman knows how to spin; a machine or jenny spins with great exactness.
    They neither know to spin, nor care to toll.
  2. To move round rapidly; to whirl; to revolve, as a top or a spindle, about its axis.
    Round about him spun the landscape, Sky and forest reeled together.
    With a whirligig of jubilant mosquitoes spinning about each head.
    — G. W. Cable.
  3. To stream or issue in a thread or a small current or jet; as, blood spinsfrom a vein.
  4. To move swifty; as, to spin along the road in a carriage, on a bicycle, etc. [Colloq.]

Spin

n.
  1. The act of spinning; as, the spin of a top; a spin a bicycle. [Colloq.]
  2. Velocity of rotation about some specified axis. (Kinematics)
  3. an interpretation of an event which is favorable to the interpreter or to the person s/he supports. A person whose task is to provide such interpretations for public relations purposes is called a spin doctor. (Politics)