[f. SPINNING vbl. sb. or ppl. a. + JENNY. The reason for this use of the personal name is uncertain.]
1. An early form of spinning-machine (introduced by James Hargreaves about 1764–7 and patented in 1770) in which several spindles were set in motion by a band from one wheel.
1783. Trans. Soc. Arts, I. 34. The construction of this kind of Machine, called a Spinning Jenny, has since been improved.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, 269. So many spinning jennies have been destroyed by the people, under the idea that such machines were contrary to their interests, that the trade is in a deplorable situation.
1816. Ann. Reg., Chron., 70/1. Demanding that he should give up a machine called a spinning jenny by the use of which they imagined themselves aggrieved.
1856. Bryant, Rhode Isl. Coal, xiv. Thou … shalt be The moving soul of many a spinning-jenny.
attrib. 1826. Cobbett, Weekly Reg., LVIII. 79. The unhappy creatures who have sweated out their lives in the spinning-jenny regions.
1834. Tait’s Mag., I. 383/1. One Peel, a spinning-jenny fellow.
fig. 1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. x. The basest of created animalcules, the Spider itself, has a spinning-jenny … within its head.
2. Part of a gambling apparatus.
1897. Daily News, 9 June, 3/3. Charged with gambling with a ‘spinning jenny’ at Hurst Park Racecourse…. He had a table coloured red, white, and black, and was turning a rod or ‘spinning jenny.’
Hence Spinning-jennyish a.
1841. Hood, Tale Trumpet, 157. Thoughts in the process of fabrication, By a Spinning-Jennyish operation.
