spin
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /spɪn/
rhymes: -ɪn
Forms: form: spins
form: spinning
form: spun
form: span
form: spinned
form: spun
form: spinned
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: I spun myself around a few times.
text: Spin the ball on the floor.
text: She spun around and gave him a big smile.
text: Round about him spun the landscape, / Sky and forest reeled together, / And his strong heart leaped within him, / As the sturgeon leaps and struggles / In a net to break its meshes.
ref: 1855, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Hiawatha’s Fasting”, in The Song of Hiawatha, Boston: Ticknor and Fields, page 76:
glosses: To rotate, revolve, gyrate (usually quickly); to partially or completely rotate to face another direction.
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To rotate, revolve, gyrate (usually quickly); to partially or completely rotate to face another direction.
To enter, or remain in, a spin (abnormal stalled flight mode).
raw_tags: of an aircraft
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To rotate, revolve, gyrate (usually quickly); to partially or completely rotate to face another direction.
To cause one's aircraft to enter or remain in a spin (abnormal stalled flight mode).
raw_tags: of a pilot
examples: text: They spin the cotton into thread.
text: Along the Sunny Bank, or Wat’ry Mead, / Ten thouſand Stalks their various Bloſſoms ſpread : / Peaceful and lowly in their native Soil, / They neither know to ſpin, nor care to toil ; / Yet with confeſs’d Magnificence deride / Our vile Attire, and Impotence of Pride.
ref: 1718, Matthew Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World”, in Poems on Several Occasions, volume II, Dublin: George Grierson, published 1738, book I, page 115:
glosses: To make yarn by twisting and winding fibers together.
examples: text: But because he is but briefe, and these things of great consequence not to be kept obscure, I shall conceave it nothing above my duty either for the difficulty or the censure that may passe thereon, to communicate such thoughts as I also have had, and do offer them now in this generall labour of reformation, to the candid view both of Church and Magistrate; especially because I see it the hope of good men, that those irregular and unspirituall Courts have spun their utmost date in this Land; and some beter course must now be constituted.
ref: 1643, John Milton, Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce:
text: In every administration there will be spokesmen and public affairs officers who try to spin the news to make the president look good. But this administration is trying to spin scientific data and muzzle scientists toward that end.
ref: 2006 February 9, “The Politics of Science”, in The Washington Post, page A22:
text: This past week[…] Republicans completed their journey through the looking-glass, spinning a new counternarrative of that deadly day.
ref: 2021 July 31, Lisa Lerer, Nicholas Fandos, “Already Distorting Jan. 6, G.O.P. Now Concocts Entire Counternarrative”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
synonyms: whitewash
sugarcoat
put lipstick on
gild
blandish
dress up
glosses: To present, describe, or interpret, or to introduce a bias or slant, so as to give something a favorable or advantageous appearance.
examples: text: This pitch is usually preferred for spin than pace.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To make the ball move sideways when it bounces on the pitch.
raw_tags: of a bowler
examples: text: Spinning the ball gave him figures of 7-48.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To move sideways when bouncing.
raw_tags: of a ball
topics: cooking
food
lifestyle
glosses: To form into thin strips or ribbons, as with sugar
examples: text: I spin a thread that you can't see / A web of thoughts best left unclean
ref: 2024, “Clawing Out”, in Greif, performed by Zeal & Ardor, Track 6:
glosses: To form (a web, a cocoon, silk, etc.) from threads produced by the extrusion of a viscid, transparent liquid, which hardens on coming into contact with the air; said of the spider, the silkworm, etc.
glosses: To shape, as malleable sheet metal, into a hollow form, by bending or buckling it by pressing against it with a smooth hand tool or roller while the metal revolves, as in a lathe.
examples: text: to spin along the road in a carriage, on a bicycle, etc.
glosses: To move swiftly.
examples: text: Blood spins from a vein.
text: Mount them, and make inciſion in their Hides, / That their hot blood may ſpin in Engliſh eyes, / And doubt them with ſuperfluous courage : ha.
ref: 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 86, column 1:
text: And yet, we refuse to simply perceive the dark. Rather than sit within total absence our brains spin imagined stimuli out into the void. After all, how could there truly be nothing there?
ref: 2025 January 15, Jacob Geller, “Fear of Dark” (2:52 from the start), in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
glosses: To stream or issue in a thread or a small current or jet.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
glosses: To wait in a loop until some condition becomes true.
examples: text: His car spun in the rains just after finishing lap four.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
motor-racing
racing
sports
glosses: To rotate into the gravel or managing to remain on the straight as a result of bad weather.
raw_tags: of a vehicle
examples: text: However, for the past six years he has been spinning his novel blend of progressive house and trance music and is finally on the brink of becoming the next luminary DJ.
ref: 2002, CMJ New Music Report, volume 70, number 12:
glosses: To play (vinyl records, etc.) as a disc jockey.
topics: cycling
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To use an exercise bicycle, especially as part of a gym class.
topics: cycling
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To ride a bicycle at a fast cadence.
examples: text: But then again, unless someone struck lucky in those first few hours, there weren't even enough detectives to spin a drum [house].
ref: 2013, Nick Oldham, Psycho Alley:
topics: government
law-enforcement
glosses: To search rapidly.
examples: text: to spin a yarn
synonyms: spin out
glosses: To draw out tediously; prolong.
topics: fishing
hobbies
lifestyle
glosses: To fish with a swivel or spoonbait.
glosses: To reject at an examination; to fail (a student).
Hypernyms: revolve
rotate
turn
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: make someone's head spin
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: respin
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: spin a tale
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: spin a yarn
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: spin bowler
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: spin doctor
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: spin down
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: spin in one's grave
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: spinner
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: spin off
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: spin one's wheels
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: spin out
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: spin plates
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: spin round
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: spin someone's wheels
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: spinster
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: spin the bottle
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: spin the trencher
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: spin up
sense: Terms derived from spin (verb)
word: you must spoil before you spin
Related terms: spider
spindle
turn around