pirn

American  

[purn, pirn] / pɜrn, pɪrn /

noun

British Dialect.

1. a weaver's bobbin, spool, or reel.

2. a fishing reel.

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pirn British  

/ pɪrn, pɜːn /

noun

1. a reel or bobbin

2. (in weaving) the spool of a shuttle

3. a fishing reel

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Etymology

Origin of pirn

1400–50; late Middle English pyrne < ?

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pirn

"Ance let a hizzy get you in the girn, Ere ye get loose, ye'll redd a ravell'd pirn."

From The Proverbs of Scotland by Alexander Hislop

The whole kemp were amazed at the quantity which from time to time filled her pirn.

From Irish Fairy Tales by W. B.

The first thing he saw was a half-finished reel of cotton—a pirn, he called it.

From Robert Falconer by George MacDonald

Fathom after fathom goes reeling from your pirn, but still you are barely able to drop the far fly into the distant curl.

From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 21 by Alexander Leighton

There's a chield can spin a muckle pirn out of a wee tait of tow!

From The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Volume 1 by Sir Walter Scott

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