spool

[spool]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR spool ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

any cylindrical piece or device on which something is wound.

a small cylindrical piece of wood or other material on which yarn is wound in spinning, for use in weaving; a bobbin.

a small cylinder of wood or other material on which thread, wire, or tape is wound, typically expanded or with a rim at each end and having a hole lengthwise through the center.

the material or quantity of material wound on such a device.

Angling. the cylindrical drum in a reel that bears the line.

verb (used with object)

to wind on a spool.

to unwind from a spool (usually followed by off or out).

Computers. to operate (an input/output device) by using buffers in main and secondary storage.

verb (used without object)

to wind.

to unwind.

RELATED WORDS

cylinder, spindle, bobbin

Origin of spool

1275–1325; Middle English spole < Middle Dutch spoele or Middle Low German spōle; cognate with German Spule

Related formsspool·er, nounspool·like, adjectiveun·spool, verb (used with object)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for spool

Contemporary Examples of spool

There he lies in fetal position, reeling from thoughts of the atrocities he has committed, which spool endlessly in his mind.
Madbeth: Alan Cumming Plays Almost Every Role in “Macbeth”  
Liesl Schillinger
April 23, 2013

Historical Examples of spool

Quickly he passed the spool around it and made a knot, then he pushed the spool itself into the mud and turned.
The Flying Stingaree
Harold Leland Goodwin
This spool of cotton is short fifty yards: mark it two hundred.
The College, the Market, and the Court
Caroline H. Dall
The scissors fell from her lap, and her spool trundled off across the porch.
The Bondboy
George W. (George Washington) Ogden
The big car purred again joyously, and the roadway slipped behind like a ribbon running over a spool.
The Girls of Central High at Basketball
Gertrude W. Morrison
The spool fits fairly tight upon the end of the core, and when in position rests against an annular shoulder in the recess.
Electricity for Boys
J. S. Zerbe

British Dictionary definitions for spool

spool

noun

a device around which magnetic tape, film, cotton, etc, can be automatically wound, with plates at top and bottom to prevent it from slipping off

anything round which other materials, esp thread, are wound

verb

(sometimes foll by up) to wind or be wound onto a spool or reel

Word Origin for spool

C14: of Germanic origin; compare Old High German spuolo, Middle Dutch spoele

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for spool

early 14c., from Old North French spole, espole "a spool" (13c.), from Middle Dutch spoele "a spool," from Proto-Germanic *spolon (cf. Norwegian and Swedish spole, Old High German spuola, German Spule), from PIE root *spel- "to cleave, split" (see spoil).

c.1600, from spool (n.). Related: Spooled; spooling.

Science definitions for spool

spool

[spōōl]

To store data that is sent to a device, such as a printer, in a buffer that the device reads. This procedure allows the program that sent the data to the device to resume its normal operation without waiting for the device to process the data.