The Collaborative International Dictionary
Spindle \Spin"dle\, n. [AS. spinal, fr. spinnan to spin; akin to D. spil, G. spille, spindel, OHG. spinnala. [root]170. See Spin.]
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.
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A slender rod or pin on which anything turns; an axis; as, the spindle of a vane. Specifically:
(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.
(Mach.) The vertical rod on which the runner of a grinding mill turns.
(Founding) A shaft or pipe on which a core of sand is formed.
The fusee of a watch.
A long and slender stalk resembling a spindle.
A yarn measure containing, in cotton yarn, 15,120 yards; in linen yarn, 14,400 yards.
(Geom.) A solid generated by the revolution of a curved line about its base or double ordinate or chord.
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(Zo["o]l.)
Any marine univalve shell of the genus Rostellaria; -- called also spindle stromb.
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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.