ppl. a. [SPINDLE sb. 16.] Having the form of a spindle; fusiform.
Chiefly Bot., Zool. and Anat.; common in 19th c.
1776. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., Explan. Terms 377. Fusiforms, spindle-shaped, simple, and gradually lessening downwards.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), IV. 220. Stem gradually increasing in thickness to the ground, and then tapering to a spindle-shaped root.
1834. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sci., 401. Not unfrequently they are long and narrow, like a spindle-shaped ray.
1863. Tyndall, Heat, viii. App. 65 (1870), 263. The flame longer, narrower, and nearly spindle-shaped.
1875. Cooke, Fungi, 84. It is easily recognized by the spindle-shaped stem.