[f. SPINDLE v.]
1. Of plants: Growing or shooting out into (long) stalks or stems, esp. of a slender or weakly kind.
1750. G. Hughes, Barbados, 217. Its numerous branches are spindling and weak.
1767. Fawkes, Theocr., iv. 65. How high these thorns, and spindling brambles grow!
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 546. Such warm sorts of land … are apt … to push the plants forward in such a rapid manner, that they become weak and spindling.
1851. B’ham & Midl. Gardeners’ Mag., April, 42. If they [sc. cuttings] are neglected in this particular they will grow spindling.
1885. Athenæum, 23 May, 669/1. Five spindling pines stand in the midst of a sandy waste.
fig. 1871. Mrs. Stowe, My Wife, ix. Doubt … breaks a fellow up, and makes him morally spindling and sickly.
2. Of things: Slender, spindly.
1858. J. G. Holland, Titcomb’s Lett., vi. 59. There are others who are coming up delicately with spindling shanks, and narrow shoulders.
1861. Athenæum, 29 June, 867. The spindling piers of stone are not grave enough in character.
