spinning
Americannoun
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Textiles.
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the act or process of converting staple or short lengths of fiber, as cotton or rayon, into continuous yarn or thread.
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the extrusion of a solution of fiber-forming substances through holes in a spinneret to form filaments.
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Entomology. the act or process of secreting and placing silk or silklike filaments, as in the construction of a web by a spider or the formation of a cocoon by a caterpillar.
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Also called spin casting, spin fishing, thread-line fishing. Angling. the act or technique of casting a relatively light lure attached to a threadlike line wound on a stationary spool.
noun
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the act or process of spinning
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( as modifier )
spinning yarn
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the act or technique of casting and drawing a revolving lure through the water so as to imitate the movement of a live fish, etc
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of spinning
Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300; see origin at spin, -ing 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Hadjar lost control on the entry to the second Swimming Pool chicane, the rear swinging around on entry and spinning him into the barriers on the exit.
From BBC • Jun. 5, 2026
What can the beat-up, worn-out records at your local thrift store do to dodge a landfill and keep the Earth spinning?
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 5, 2026
Eager to raise cash for data centers, Son plans to tap the market’s hunger for companies focused on AI and related uses by spinning off collections of companies within SoftBank.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 4, 2026
"The photons spin in a corkscrew fashion, but more importantly, we can use these spinning photons to impart spin on electrons that are the heart of quantum computing."
From Science Daily • May 30, 2026
But first, I needed to stop the room from spinning.
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.