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. Zool. (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. Zool. 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. Europaeus was used for spindles and skewers. See Prickwood.
© Webster 1913.
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.
© Webster 1913. | 
