[spin-dl] 
noun, adjective, verb, -dled, -dling.| 1. | a rounded rod, usually of wood, tapering toward each end, used in hand-spinning to twist into thread the fibers drawn from the mass on the distaff, and on which the thread is wound as it is spun. |
| 2. | the rod on a spinning wheel by which the thread is twisted and on which it is wound. |
| 3. | one of the rods of a spinning machine that bear the bobbins on which the spun thread is wound. |
| 4. | any rod or pin suggestive of a spindle used in spinning, as one that turns around or on which something turns; an axle, axis, or shaft. |
| 5. | a vertical shaft that serves to center a phonograph record on a turntable. |
| 6. | either of two shafts or arbors that support the work on a lathe, one (live spindle) on the headstock, rotating with and imparting motion to the work, the other (dead spindle) on the tailstock, motionless. |
| 7. | a small axis, arbor, or mandrel. |
| 8. | an iron rod or the like, usually with a ball or cage at the top, fixed to a rock, sunken reef, etc., to serve as a guide in navigation. |
| 9. | a measure of yarn, containing, for cotton, 15,120 yards (13,825 m), and for linen, 14,400 yards (13,267 m). |
| 10. | a hydrometer. |
| 11. | Cell Biology. a spindle-shaped structure, composed of microtubules, that forms near the cell nucleus during mitosis or meiosis and, as it divides, draws the chromosomes to opposite poles of the cell. |
| 12. | a short, turned or circular ornament, as in a baluster or stair rail. |
| 13. | spindle file. |
| 14. | Eastern New England. a tassel on an ear of corn. |
| 15. | Chiefly New Jersey and Delaware Valley. dragonfly. |
| 16. | spindle side. |
| 17. | to give the form of a spindle to. |
| 18. | to provide or equip with a spindle or spindles. |
| 19. | to impale (a card or paper) on a spindle, as for sorting purposes. |
| 20. | to shoot up, or grow, into a long, slender stalk or stem, as a plant. |
| 21. | to grow tall and slender, often disproportionately so. |
| a device for holding bills, memos, etc., having a projecting metal spike or hooked object on which to stick papers. |
| drag·on·fly (drāg'ən-flī') n. Any of various large insects of the order Odonata or suborder Anisoptera, having a long slender body and two pairs of narrow, net-veined wings that are usually held outstretched while the insect is at rest. Also called regionally darner, darning needle, devil's darning needle, ear sewer, mosquito fly, mosquito hawk, needle, skeeter hawk, snake doctor, snake feeder, spindle. Regional terms for the dragonfly are numerous—the Dictionary of American Regional English lists nearly 80 of them. The greatest variety of terms is to be found in the South, where the most widespread term is snake doctor (a name based on a folk belief that dragonflies take care of snakes). The Midland equivalent is snake feeder. Speakers from the Lower South and the Mississippi Valley, on the other hand, are more likely to refer to the same insect as a mosquito fly, mosquito hawk, or, in the South Atlantic states, a skeeter hawk. The imagery outside the South often alludes to the insect's shape rather than its behavior or diet: speakers in the West, Upper North, and New England call it a darner, darning needle, or, less commonly, a devil's darning needle, and those in the Upper North also refer to it just as a needle; those in Coastal New Jersey, a spindle; and those in the San Francisco Bay area, an ear sewer, that is, a creature that sews up your ears. |
| spin·dle (spĭn'dl) n.
v. tr.
To grow into a thin, elongated, or weak form. [Middle English spindel, alteration of Old English spinel; see (s)pen- in Indo-European roots.] |
spindle spin·dle (spĭn'dl)
n.
A fusiform structure, usually composed of microtubules.
Mitotic spindle.
| spindle (spĭn'dl) Pronunciation Key
A network of protein fibers that forms in the cytoplasm of a cell during cell division. The spindle grows forth from the centrosomes and attaches to the chromosomes after the latter have been duplicated, and the nuclear membrane dissolves. Once attached, the spindle fibers contract, pulling the duplicate chromosomes apart to opposite poles of the dividing cell. See more at meiosis, mitosis. |
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