spin
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /spɪn/
rhymes: -ɪn
Forms: form: spins
Etymology: From Middle English spinnen, from Old English spinnan, from Proto-Germanic *spinnaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)penh₁-.
Cognates
Cognate with Dutch, German spinnen (“to spin”), Luxembourgish spannen (“to spin”), Yiddish שפּינען (shpinen, “spin”), Danish spinde (“to spin”), Faroese, Icelandic and Swedish spinna (“to spin”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk spinne (“to spin”), Gothic 𐍃𐍀𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽 (spinnan, “to spin”).
Senses: examples: text: The car went into a spin.
text: The skaters demonstrated their spins.
text: He put some spin on the cue ball.
glosses: Rapid circular motion.
examples: text: My mind was in a spin.
glosses: A state of confusion or disorientation.
qualifier: quantum mechanics
glosses: A quantum angular momentum associated with subatomic particles, which also creates a magnetic moment.
examples: text: The media has been having a field day not only with the usual tired homophobic innuendos (which one has come to expect) but with new spins on queer bashing that might even seem inventive if they were not so hateful.
ref: 1991 August 10, Michael Bronski, “'I Know You Are, But What Am I?'”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 4, page 1:
glosses: A novel, creative variation of an existing thing or type; a twist.
examples: text: spin doctor
text: Try to put a positive spin on the disappointing sales figures.
text: The politician was mocked in the press for his reliance on spin rather than facts.
text: He added: "We've always had spin, especially from Government. But this is not spin. This is dishonesty and so it's our rail media's urgent responsibility to call it out because non-specialist journalists across the country will report this and gradually these untruths will be accepted.
ref: 2022 January 26, Paul Stephen, “Network News: Government's IRP claims condemned as "dishonest"”, in RAIL, number 949, page 7:
text: Over the course of Yaccarino’s tenure as CEO, she frequently had to put a positive spin on public relations disasters and Musk’s belligerent behavior.
ref: 2025 July 9, Blake Montgomery, Nick Robins-Early, “Linda Yaccarino stepping down as CEO of Elon Musk’s X”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
coordinate_terms: coloration
distortion
propaganda
glosses: A favourable comment or interpretation intended to bias opinion on an otherwise unpleasant situation.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
synonyms: swazz
glosses: Rotation of the ball as it flies through the air; sideways movement of the ball as it bounces.
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A condition of flight where a stalled aircraft is simultaneously pitching, yawing, and rolling in a spinning motion.
topics: engineering
mechanical
mechanical-engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: An abnormal condition in journal bearings where the bearing seizes to the rotating shaft and rotates inside the journal, destroying both the shaft and the journal.
examples: text: I'm off out for a spin in my new sports car.
text: But she opened the door and said "Honey, take me for a spin." / So we drove up town just to get the tags / And I headed her right on down main drag / I could hear everybody laughin' for blocks around / But up there at the court house they didn't laugh / 'Cause to type it up it took the whole staff / And when they got through the title weighed sixty pounds.
ref: 1976, “One Piece at a Time”, Wayne Kemp (music), performed by Johnny Cash:
text: Time is running out, so I renounce a spin on a Class 387 for a fast run to Paddington on another Class 800 - a shame as the weather was perfect for pictures. Even so, it's enjoyable - boy, can those trains shift under the wires.
ref: 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68:
glosses: A brief trip by vehicle, especially one made for pleasure.
examples: text: She left him alone, and went to get Annie a spin of toffee.
ref: 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 1, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
glosses: A bundle of spun material; a mass of strands and filaments.
examples: text: Let's give this classic LP another spin.
text: Although the Loveless title showed the smallest increase in airplay in the top 10, its number of detections outpaced the nearest bulleted title by more than 350 spins.
ref: 1996, Billboard, volume 108, number 12, page 37:
glosses: A single play of a record; especially, one broadcast by a radio station.
examples: text: Mr Weedon explains that this is a cell search - known by prisoners as a spin - and for obvious reasons it has to be carried out without any warning.
ref: 2002, Jeffrey Archer, A Prison Diary:
glosses: A search of a prisoner's cell for forbidden articles.
examples: 1893, Bithia Mary Croker, "To Let" in "To Let" etc., Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1906, p. 1, https://archive.org/details/toletcroker00crok
Some years ago, when I was a slim young spin, I came out to India to live with my brother Tom […]
glosses: An unmarried woman; a spinster.
synonyms: spinning
glosses: The use of an exercise bicycle, especially as part of a gym class.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: backspin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: barspin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: Biellmann spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: camel spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: despin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: electron spin resonance
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: finger spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: flat spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: free spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: in a flat spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: in a spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: inverted spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: isobaric spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: isotopic spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: I-spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: Jackson Haines spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: layback spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: leg spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: media spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: off spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: on the spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: orthodox spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: parallel spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: quantum spin liquid
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: quantum unit of spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: sidespin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: sit spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin bath
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin bike
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin button
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin chain
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin class
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin control
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin-density wave
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin doctor
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin-doctored
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin doctoring
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin-dried
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin-dry
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin dryer
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin echo
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin fishing
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin foam
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin glass
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin Hall effect
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin ice
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin label
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin-lattice relaxation time
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin machine
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin magnetic moment
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin merchant
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin network
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin-off
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin-o-rama
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin polarization
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin-polarized
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin quantum number
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin room
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin-spin energy
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin-spin relaxation time
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin-top
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin trap
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin trapping
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin-up
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: spin wave
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: tailspin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: take for a spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: topspin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: upright spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: with the spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (noun)
word: wrist spin