[SPINNING vbl. sb.]
1. A room or building set apart for the purpose of spinning.
1463. Bury Wills (Camden), 20. Ye dore yt is out of ye parlour into ye spynnyng hous. Ibid. The drawt chambyr above ye spynnyng hous.
1756. Nugent, Gr. Tour, Italy, III. 113. The most remarkable thing is its spinning-house for a manufacture of silk.
1772. Hartford Merc. Suppl., 18 Sept., 4/3. A Dressing Shop, a long spinning and Weaving House.
2. (See quots. and cf. SPIN-HOUSE.)
1803. Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, 126. Spinning House, an ergastulum; a house of labour and correction; a prison for prostitutes under the jurisdiction of the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors.
1840. Life J. Howard, in Chivalry & Charity, 150. A spinning house, or Bridewell for women, at Amsterdam.
1874. Slang Dict., 304. Spinning-house, the place in Cambridge where street-walkers are locked up, if found out after a certain time at night.
1897. T. D. Atkinson, Cambridge, 94. In 1790 the Gaol was removed to a new building at the back of the Spinning House.