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Spin   /spɪn/   Listen
noun
Spin  n.  
1.
The act of spinning; as, the spin of a top; a spin a bicycle. (Colloq.)
2.
(Kinematics) Velocity of rotation about some specified axis.
3.
(Politics) 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.


verb
Spin  v. t.  (past span; past part. spun; pres. part. 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. "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?"
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.
(Mech.) 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.
To spin a yarn (Naut.), to tell a story, esp. a long or fabulous tale.
To spin hay (Mil.), to twist it into ropes for convenient carriage on an expedition.
To spin street yarn, to gad about gossiping. (Collog.)


Spin  v. i.  (past span; past part. spun; pres. part. spinning)  
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."
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.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Spin" Quotes from Famous Books



... dropped nearly half the animals dead with one shot; a most unusual record, as every sportsman will recognize. The bullets seemed on impact always to flatten slightly at the base, the point remaining intact-to spin widely on the axis, and to plunge off at an angle. This action of course depended on the high velocity. The requisite velocity, however seemed to keep up within all shooting ranges. A kongoni I killed at 638 paces (measured), and another at 566 paces both ...
— The Land of Footprints • Stewart Edward White
... hath too witching a power on me, madame. I cannot spin or knit or sew when he is by; I must needs watch every motion of his if he ...
— The Lady of Fort St. John • Mary Hartwell Catherwood
... the first thump of the sharp hoofs as they cut their way into the earth, and then his head seemed to spin, as though he had been whirled around with inconceivable velocity; innumerable stars danced before his eyes, he felt as if shooting through space, ...
— Through Forest and Fire - Wild-Woods Series No. 1 • Edward Ellis
... the less so when it brings us to the conclusion that the Aztecs did succeed in cutting porphyry. Again, when we read about Indian armies of 200,000 men, pertinent questions arise as to the commissariat, and we are led to reflect that there is nothing about which old soldiers spin such unconscionable yarns as about the size of the armies they have thrashed. In a fairy tale, of course, such suggestions are impertinent; things can go on anyhow. In real life it is different. The trouble with most historians ...
— The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2) - with some account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest • John Fiske
... naked except some thing before their priuie parts, which is like a clout about a quarter of a yard long made of the barke of trees, and yet it is like a cloth: for the barke is of that nature, that it will spin small after the maner of linnen. [Sidenote: The Negroes race their skinnes.] Some of them also weare the like vpon their heades being painted with diuers colours, but the most part of them go bare headed, and their heads are clipped and shorne of diuers sorts, and the most part ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of - The English Nation, Vol. 11 • Richard Hakluyt


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