What is "spindle shell"

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:

   1. (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.

   2. (Mach.) The vertical rod on which the runner of a grinding mill turns.

   3. (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.)

   1. Any marine univalve shell of the genus Rostellaria; -- called also spindle stromb.

   2. 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.