spin definition

Equivalent to buzz. More common among C and Unix programmers.

(01 Jul 2002)

1. To practice spinning; to work at drawing and twisting threads; to make yarn or thread from fibre; as, the woman knows how to spin; a machine or jenny spins with great exactness. "They neither know to spin, nor care to toll." (Prior)

2. To move round rapidly; to whirl; to revolve, as a top or a spindle, about its axis. "Round about him spun the landscape, Sky and forest reeled together." (Longfellow) "With a whirligig of jubilant mosquitoes spinning about each head." (G. W. Cable)

3. To stream or issue in a thread or a small current or jet; as, blood spinsfrom a vein.

4. To move swifty; as, to spin along the road in a carriage, on a bicycle, etc.

1. To draw out, and twist into threads, either by the hand or machinery; as, to spin wool, cotton, or flax; to spin goat's hair; to produce by drawing out and twisting a fibrous material. "All the yarn she [Penelope] spun in Ulysses' absence did but fill Ithaca full of moths." (Shak)

2. To draw out tediously; to form by a slow process, or by degrees; to extend to a great length; with out; as, to spin out large volumes on a subject. "Do you mean that story is tediously spun out?" (Sheridan)

3. To protract; to spend by delays; as, to spin out the day in idleness. "By one delay after another they spin out their whole lives." (L'Estrange)

4. To cause to turn round rapidly; to whirl; to twirl; as, to spin a top.

5. To form (a web, a cocoon, silk, or the like) from threads produced by the extrusion of a viscid, transparent liquid, which hardens on coming into contact with the air; said of the spider, the silkworm, etc.

6. <mechanics> To shape, as malleable sheet metal, into a hollow form, by bending or buckling it by pressing against it with a smooth hand tool or roller while the metal revolves, as in a lathe. To spin a yarn, to twist it into ropes for convenient carriage on an expedition. To spin street yarn, to gad about gossiping.

Origin: AS. Spinnan; akin to D. & G. Spinnen, Icel. & Sw. Spinna, Dan. Spinde, Goth. Spinnan, and probably to E. Span. Cf. Span, Spider.

1. The act of spinning; as, the spin of a top; a spin a bicycle.

2. <physics> Velocity of rotation about some specified axis.

(01 Mar 1998)