Spindle /(?)/

Spin·dle

Spindle

n.
  1. The long, round, slender rod or pin in spinning wheels by which the thread is twisted, and on which, when twisted, it is wound; also, the pin on which the bobbin is held in a spinning machine, or in the shuttle of a loom.
  2. A slender rod or pin on which anything turns; an axis; as, the spindle of a vane.
  3. The shaft, mandrel, or arbor, in a machine tool, as a lathe or drilling machine, etc., which causes the work to revolve, or carries a tool or center, etc. (Mach.)
  4. The vertical rod on which the runner of a grinding mill turns. (Mach.)
  5. A shaft or pipe on which a core of sand is formed. (Founding)
  6. The fusee of a watch.
  7. A long and slender stalk resembling a spindle.
  8. A yarn measure containing, in cotton yarn, 15,120 yards; in linen yarn, 14,400 yards.
  9. A solid generated by the revolution of a curved line about its base or double ordinate or chord. (Geom.)
  10. Any marine univalve shell of the genus Rostellaria; -- called also spindle stromb. (Zool.)

Phrases & Compounds
Dead spindle
a spindle in a machine tool that does not revolve; the spindle of the tailstock of a lathe.
Live spindle
the revolving spindle of a machine tool; the spindle of the headstock of a turning lathe.
Spindle shell
See Spindle, 7. above.
Spindle side
the female side in descent; in the female line; opposed to spear side.
Spindle tree
any shrub or tree of the genus Eunymus. The wood of Eunymus Europaeus was used for spindles and skewers. See Prickwood.

Spindle

v. i.

imp. & p. p. Spindled; p. pr. & vb. n. Spindling

  1. To shoot or grow into a long, slender stalk or body; to become disproportionately tall and slender.
    It has begun to spindle into overintellectuality.