Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Spindle?

\Spin"dle\, n. [AS. spinal, fr. spinnan to spin; akin to D. spil, G. spille, spindel, OHG. spinnala. [root]170. See {Spin}.] 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. Specifically: (a) (Mach.) 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. (b) (Mach.) The vertical rod on which the runner of a grinding mill turns. (c) (Founding) A shaft or pipe on which a core of sand is formed. 3. The fusee of a watch. 4. A long and slender stalk resembling a spindle. 5. A yarn measure containing, in cotton yarn, 15,120 yards; in linen yarn, 14,400 yards. 6. (Geom.) A solid generated by the revolution of a curved line about its base or double ordinate or chord. 7. (Zo["o]l.) (a) Any marine univalve shell of the genus {Rostellaria}; -- called also {spindle stromb}. (b) Any marine gastropod of the genus {Fusus}. {Dead spindle} (Mach.), a spindle in a machine tool that does not revolve; the spindle of the tailstock of a lathe. {Live spindle} (Mach.), the revolving spindle of a machine tool; the spindle of the headstock of a turning lathe. {Spindle shell}. (Zo["o]l.) See {Spindle}, 7. above. {Spindle side}, the female side in descent; in the female line; opposed to {spear side}. --Ld. Lytton. [R.] ``King Lycaon, grandson, by the spindle side, of Oceanus.'' --Lowell. {Spindle tree} (Bot.), any shrub or tree of the genus {Eunymus}. The wood of {E. Europ[ae]us} was used for spindles and skewers. See {Prickwood}.
\Spin"dle\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Spindled}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Spindling}.] To shoot or grow into a long, slender stalk or body; to become disproportionately tall and slender. It has begun to spindle into overintellectuality. --Lowell.