[f. SPIN v. + -ING1.]
I. 1. The action or operation of converting fibers into thread or yarn by hand-labor or by machinery.
Freq. also in combs., as cotton-, flax-spinning.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 261/18. With spinningue and with seuwingue.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Wife’s Prol., 401. Deceite, weping, spinning god hath yive To wommen kindely.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. X. 74. That þei wiþ spynnynge may spare [they] spenen hit in hous-hyre.
1440. York Mem. Bk. (Surtees), I. 78. That noon … make no capez nother of meld woll nor meld garn, nother of thair awne spynnyng nor bought spon.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., 49 b. A woman can nat get her lyuynge honestly wt spynnynge on the dystaffe.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 109. Sowe hemp and flacks, that spinning lacks.
1685. Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., Matt. vi. 28. Christ here neither blameth Sowing, Spinning or other meer labour.
1756. Dyer, Fleece, III. 59. A diff’rent spinning every diff’rent web Asks from your glowing fingers.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch (1851), 29/1. She was not to be employed in any other labour but that of spinning.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 404. The various modes of preparing flax for the operation of spinning.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2272/2. The spinning of flax resembles the throstle-spinning of cotton.
fig. 1818. Byron, Juan, I. vii. I shall open with a line (Although it cost me half an hour in spinning).
b. The operation of producing a thread of some viscid material.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., s.v., By making the viscous liquor … pass through a fine perforation in the organ appointed for this spinning.
1815. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1818), I. 408. The same preliminary step which the spider adopts in spinning.
1883. Haldane, Workshop Rec., Ser. II. 165/2. Spinning.—Proficiency in this requires much practice…. Dip a tablespoon in the sugar [etc.].
2. The product of this operation; the thread or yarn spun.
c. 1511. 1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.), Introd. p. xxxv/1. Of that same spynnyng we make our clothynge.
1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4850/3. 30 Pound weight of Legois Spinnings.
1887. Daily News, 5 Nov., 2/5. In higher numbers and best spinnings there is a moderate amount of business. Ibid. (1892), 3 Aug., 2/6. Most spinnings were quoted at a slight advance.
3. The action of protracting or drawing out to undue length; an instance of this.
1644. D. P. P. (title), The Six Secondary Cavses of the Spinning out of this Vnnaturall Warre.
1736. Fielding, Pasquin, IV. i. The practical rules of writing,… the first and greatest of which is protraction, or the art of spinning.
1780. Wesley, Wks. (1872), XIV. 295. I was indeed a little disgusted with the spinning out of the story.
1830. H. N. Coleridge, Grk. Poets (1834), 268. The injudicious spinnings out of a shorter primitive text.
4. The action of turning or whirling round; rapid revolution.
1814–24. Col. Hawker, Instr. Yng. Sportsm., 175. To prevent a counteraction to the spinning of the minnow.
1858. Greener, Gunnery, 278. Unscientifically formed projectiles … have to receive a counteracting agency in the shape of additional spinning.
1866. Airy, Pop. Astron., v. (1868), 184. In consequence of its spinning, the inclination of CP to CQ does not sensibly alter.
5. The action of angling with a spinning bait.
1855. Kingsley, Glaucus (1878), 22. There is good spinning with a brass minnow round the angles of the rocks.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Rural Sports, 254/1. Spinning for perch is practised as follows.
1870. Pennell, Mod. Pract. Angler, 123. In all sorts of spinning … a good breeze is usually an advantage.
6. The operation of shaping metallic substances by means of a turning-lathe.
1857. R. Hunt, Guide Mus. Pract. Geol. (1859), 188. Sheet metal prepared for the process of ‘spinning.’
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 840/1. Spinning.… A mode of forming silver and other ductile metal into shapes.
II. attrib. 7. (In sense 1.) a. Misc., as spinning-mistress, -process, -time, -work.
1608. Willet, Hexapla Exod., Ded. 2. The women … vse euery yeere to shew publikely their spinning work.
1677. Yarranton, Eng. Improv., 159. Send for a Spinning Mistriss out of Germany, to … govern the little Maids, and instruct them in the Art of Spinning.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), II. 37. The top Leaves … being most proper to feed the Worms towards their Spinning time.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 14. The carding, drawing, roving, and spinning processes of a cotton-mill.
1899. Daily News, 16 Jan., 9/4. The spinning end of the trade has been characterised by a fair amount of briskness.
b. In terms denoting appliances or machinery, or parts of these, employed in spinning, as spinning-engine, -frame, -hook, -machine, etc.
1678. Patent Office, No. 202. 1. A new *Spining Engin whereby Six to an hundred Spinners and vpwards may be imployed by the Strength of one or two Persons.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 387. The cotton … is carried to the *spinning-frame.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., II. 337/2. The transition from Arkwright’s spinning-frame … to the throstle-frame was easy enough.
1788. ? Burns, D. Davison, 15. Then Meg took up her *spinnin’-graith, And flang them a’ out o’er the burn.
1750. Blanckley, Nav. Expos., 80. *Spinning Hooks are drove into the Rails for the Rope-makers to hang their threads on, as they spin them.
c. 1790. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), V. 488. The rapid operations of the new *spinning machines.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., II. 43/1. Paul’s spinning-machine patent … is dated 1738.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 446. It is not meant … to condemn the introduction of *spinning-machinery.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 273. The machine for twisting the single threads of silk … is called the *spinning-mill.
1844. G. Dodd, Textile Manuf., i. 18. Crompton, of Bolton, who invented the *‘spinning-mule.’
a. 1693. Urquhart’s Rabelais, III. xxviii. (1737), III. 395. Wouldst thou … slander the *spinning-quills … of the weird sisters, Parcæ.
1730. Phil. Trans., XXXVI. 337. As the Spill of a *Spinning-Turn is moved.
1865. Lubbock, Preh. Times, 163. Earthenware *spinning-weights.
1895. A. C. Haddon, Evol. Art, 177. These patterns are delineated on masks, posts, *spinning-whorls, and other objects.
c. In terms denoting places where spinning is carried on, as spinning-factory, -floor, -ground, -mill, -place, etc.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 351. At the elegant *spinning-factory of Egerton, near Bolton.
1890. W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 164. Finally it reaches the *spinning-floor.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 419. There are two railways … fixed along the *spinning-ground or rope-walk.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 334. The better wages and steadier employment of their great *spinning-mills.
1689. in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1883), I. 312. A *spinning place at ye entrance into ye town field. Ibid. (1692). A spinning place … for making cables.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 400. That the *spinning-rooms in a cotton factory can be crowded is utterly impossible.
1677. Yarranton, Eng. Improv., 47. After a young Maid hath been three years in the *Spinning School … she will get eight pence the day.
1799. [A. Young], Agric. Linc., 441. I made many inquiries concerning the present state of the spinning schools.
d. In terms relating to the spinneret of spiders, etc., as spinning gland, organ, -tube, tubuli, -wart.
1841. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd., 317. At the base of the external spinning tubuli.
1878. F. J. Bell, Gegenbaur’s Comp. Anat., 250. The spinning glands of Spiders are further differentiations of dermal glands. Ibid., 291. In others this pair of stigmata is fused, and lies in front of the spinning-warts.
1885. H. C. McCook, Tenants Old Farm, 136. The spinning-tubes at the end of the abdomen.
1890. Science-Gossip, XXVI. 130/1. The spinning organs of various kinds of spiders.
8. a. Spinning-top, = TOP sb.2 1.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 5. The spinning-top whirl’d from the twitching string.
1862. [Eliz. Johnston], Gifts & Graces, xviii. 177. Many … a spinning-top, or popgun, had reached him from the hand of the kind Squire of Lisworth.
1879. [see PEERY sb.].
b. Spinning-rod, -tackle, etc. (see SPIN v. 12).
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Rural Sports, 263/2. The Spinning-Tackle for salmon.
1870. Pennell, Mod. Pract. Angler, 52. A trolling and spinning rod of about the stiffness I find preferable.
