Crossword clues for bobbin
bobbin
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bobbin \Bob"bin\, n. [F. bobine; of uncertain origin; cf. L. bombus a humming, from the noise it makes, or Ir. & Gael. baban tassel, or E. bob.]
A small pin, or cylinder, formerly of bone, now most commonly of wood, used in the making of pillow lace. Each thread is wound on a separate bobbin which hangs down holding the thread at a slight tension.
A spool or reel of various material and construction, with a head at one or both ends, and sometimes with a hole bored through its length by which it may be placed on a spindle or pivot. It is used to hold yarn or thread, as in spinning or warping machines, looms, sewing machines, etc.
The little rounded piece of wood, at the end of a latch string, which is pulled to raise the latch.
(Haberdashery) A fine cord or narrow braid.
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(Elec.) A cylindrical or spool-shaped coil or insulated wire, usually containing a core of soft iron which becomes magnetic when the wire is traversed by an electrical current.
Bobbin and fly frame, a roving machine.
Bobbin lace, lace made on a pillow with bobbins; pillow lace.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1520s, from French bobine, small instrument used in sewing or tapestry-making, perhaps from Latin balbus (see babble (v.)) for the stuttering, stammering noise it made.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A spool or cylinder around which wire is coiled. 2 In a sewing machine, the small spool that holds the lower thread. 3 The little rounded piece of wood at the end of a latch string, which is pulled to raise the latch. 4 (context haberdashery English) A fine cord or narrow braid.
WordNet
Wikipedia
A bobbin is a spindle or cylinder, with or without flanges, on which wire, yarn, thread or film is wound. Bobbins are typically found in sewing machines, cameras, and within electronic equipment. In non-electrical applications the bobbin is used for tidy storage without tangles. In electrical applications a coil of wire carrying a current has important magnetic properties. As used in spinning, weaving, knitting, sewing, or lacemaking, the bobbin provides temporary or permanent storage for yarn and may be made of plastic, metal, bone or wood.
Bobbin lacemaking is a handcraft which requires the winding of yarn onto a temporary storage spindle made of wood, previously bone, often turned on a lathe. Many lace designs use dozens of bobbins at any one time. Exotic woods are extremely popular with contemporary lacemakers. Both traditional and contemporary bobbins may be decorated with designs, inscriptions, or pewter or wire inlays. Often, the bobbins are 'spangled' to provide additional weight to keep the thread in tension. A hole is drilled near the base to enable glass beads and other ornaments to be attached by a loop of wire. Again, in the modern context of the hobby of bobbin lacemaking, these spangles provide a means of self-expression in the decoration of a tool of the craft. Both antique and unique bobbins, sometimes spangled, have become highly sought after by collectors.
In the case of an electrical transformer, inductor or relay, the bobbin is a permanent container for the wire, acting to form the shape of the coil (and ease assembly of the windings into or onto the magnetic core). The bobbin may be made of thermoplastic or thermosetting (for example, phenolic) materials. This plastic often has to have a TÜV, UL or other regulatory agency flammability rating for safety reasons.
Image:Sewing Bobbin.jpg|A sewing machine bobbin, 2-3cm in diameter. Image:Bobbin (PSF).jpg|A large bobbin of the sort that might be used in an industrial textile loom. Image:The bobbin of the British type.jpg | Spangled lace bobbins
The term "bobbins" also appears in northern English slang, meaning "rubbish", i.e. something worthless or incorrect. Taken from the cockney "bobbins of cotton", meaning "rotten". This may be related to the contemporary British slang usage, where "bobbins" can be used to denote something negative, particularly in theatrical circles.
Usage examples of "bobbin".
Extending over the vat are a number of reels or bobbins, these are best made of wood or enamelled iron.
These bobbins are kept busy after this, searching out damage caused by micrometeors and space debris and repairing it.
Dick Bobbins crept out of his hobhole and made his nightly journey up to the store.
Into the second compartment she led me, and placed on the counter, apparently all ready for me, were numerous boxes, some holding cards of buttons, and others, a jumble of coloured tapes and bobbins of thread.
In the mornings, surrounded by tapes, bobbins and bales of flannelette and drill, I released myself from the shop and went straight up through the fanlight into my dream world, the dream world which held the river and the wood and fells, and .
Before him, above a bin filled with small bobbins, were large bobbins revolving rapidly.
The small bobbins were emptied so rapidly, and there were so many large bobbins that did the emptying, that there were no idle moments.
Some of the boys shirked, wasting time and machinery by not replacing the small bobbins when they ran out.
When a small bobbin ran out, he used his left hand for a brake, stopping the large bobbin and at the same time, with thumb and forefinger, catching the flying end of twine.
After a few minutes I had the bobbin filled with beige thread and I went to knock on his door.
Taran and Gurgi spun thread and filled bobbins during the next few days.
To Ozma, herself, and to Atmos, plodding wearily along the rough road, nothing could have been more astonishing than the sudden appearance of Betsy Bobbin and her friends.
She was talking to me blubberingly about what a good Catholic she was and how she had tried not to sin, and maybe she was so wrapped up in what she was saying that she didn't know what I was doing, but just the same when I got my hand in her crotch and said all the beautiful things I could think of, about God, about love, about going to church and confessing and all that crap, she must have felt something because I had a good three fingers inside her and working them around like drunken bobbins.
It goze on up, neerly disappers out ov 1 ov thi big long slits, then cums 2 a stop @ thi top ov thi shaft, between thi coan & thi shaft side, bobbin like a baloon lost 2 thi seelin @ a kids party.
And the next second it's your six-inch raindrops pumping up and down like bobbins on the front steps and the thunder and lightning setting off every car alarm in the street and the drain covers bursting their housings and slithering like discuses down the road in the brown current and the palm fronds and trash-cans adding their unlovely contribution, and the black fellows in capes who always appear out of nowhere whenever there's a down-pour, flogging you golf umbrellas through your car window or offering to push you to higher ground for a dollar so that you don't get your distributor wet.