spindle
Other forms: spindles
A spindle is a narrow wooden rod that's used when spinning wool. If your aunt has a spinning wheel for making yarn from the wool of her sheep, it must have a spindle on it for twisting the fibers.
The noun spindle can be used to talk about a number of different forms of wooden rod or dowel, particularly if they turn or spin. A yarn spinner's spindle is one kind — another is a chair leg or a banister rail that was made from being turned on a lathe. In fact, spindle and spin share a common root word, the Old English spinnan, "draw out and twist fibers into a thread."
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a stick or pin used to twist the yarn in spinningtype of:stickan implement consisting of a length of wood
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any of various rotating shafts that serve as axes for larger rotating parts
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any holding device consisting of a rigid, sharp-pointed objectsynonyms: spiketype of:holding devicea device for holding something
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a piece of wood that has been turned on a lathe; used as a baluster, chair leg, etc.type of:piecea separate part of a whole
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(biology) tiny fibers that are seen in cell division; the fibers radiate from two poles and meet at the equator in the middle
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Vocabulary lists containing spindle
In the first volume of the popular The Land of Stories series, siblings Alex and Conner are magically transported into the world of fairy tales.
In medieval England, an unconventional teenage girl records events in her daily life, including her attempts to thwart her father's plans to marry her off.
Angry at not being invited to the royal feast, a fairy curses the newborn princess with a deadly spindle wound when she turns fifteen. Read the full text here. Translated by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes.