[f. SPIN v.]
1. That spins or produces thread.
1634. Milton, Comus, 715. Millions of spinning Worms, That … weave the smooth-hair’d silk.
1708. Sewel, II. Spinster, a Spinning-woman.
1736. Gentl. Mag., VI. 681/1. You May, like Arachne, dare to vie, With any spinning Deity.
1840. trans. Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 460. The second section of the sedentary and rectigrade Spiders—that of the Inequitelæ or Spinning Spiders.
1891. Cent. Dict., Spinning-mite, any mite or acarid of the family Tetraonychidæ; a red-spider.
2. That spouts or gushes. rare.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. (1586), 143. It easeth straight the flaming feuers paine, If in the foote you strike the spinning vaine.
3. That revolves, gyrates, or turns round.
1853. Ct. E. de Warren, trans. De Saulcy’s Journ. Dead Sea, II. 273. A spinning dervise usually resides in the Grotto of Jeremiah, and levies a small tribute on all pilgrims who visit the place.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, i. 30. The chub … will run equally at a spinning-bait, or a live minnow.
1869. Ruskin, Q. of Air, Pref. p. vii. A newly-constructed artificial rockery, with a fountain twisted through a spinning spout.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 56. Artificial Spinning Baits, Flies and Insects.
transf. 1862. Pycroft, Cricket Tutor, 35. Spinning bowling is always liable to turn in or to break away contrary to all expectation.
4. colloq. Rapid, fast.
1882. Society, 16 Dec., 4/2. The Cambridgeshire enjoyed a spinning run.
