spool
Americannoun
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any cylindrical piece or device on which something is wound.
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a small cylindrical piece of wood or other material on which yarn is wound in spinning, for use in weaving; a bobbin.
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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.
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the material or quantity of material wound on such a device.
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Angling. the cylindrical drum in a reel that bears the line.
verb (used with object)
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to wind on a spool.
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to unwind from a spool (usually followed by off orout ).
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Computers. to operate (an input/output device) by using buffers in main and secondary storage.
verb (used without object)
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to wind.
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to unwind.
noun
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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
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anything round which other materials, esp thread, are wound
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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has spooledperfect 3rd person singular
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have spooledperfect
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have been spoolingperfect progressive
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is spoolingprogressive 3rd person singular
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has been spoolingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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spoolssingular 3rd person
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are spoolingprogressive
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am spoolingprogressive 1st person singular
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spoolingparticiple
Past
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had spooledperfect
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had been spoolingperfect progressive
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spooledsimple
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was spoolingprogressive singular
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spooledparticiple
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were spoolingprogressive plural
Future
Etymology
Origin of spool
1275–1325; Middle English spole < Middle Dutch spoele or Middle Low German spōle; cognate with German Spule
Explanation
Fishing line, thread, and wire are usually wound around a special cylinder called a spool. If you enjoy sewing, you might buy spools of colored thread at the crafts store. Back in the days of cassette tapes, the magnetic tape would occasionally get tangled in the tape player and have to be wound back on its spool. You can use this word as a verb, too: "Will you spool that loose thread back on the bobbin for me?" Computer experts use spool to mean "store data temporarily," so they might spool computer files to a desktop folder, for example.
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.
DNA is tightly packed into chromosomes, similar to thread wound around a spool, and is often present in multiple copies that must be reliably passed on during division.
From Science Daily • Apr. 20, 2026
Checking up before a tight hairpin—braking late, downshifting with the paddle shifters, turning hard into hairpin corners, the weight of the wheel growing heavy, the little engine piping at full spool.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 28, 2026
She points out the spool of paper tickets in the box office, now coiling on the floor and ready to be counted.
From Salon • Dec. 18, 2025
"Data is a sequence of bits and bytes," explains senior product developer, Alexey Mantsev, as film ran through a spool at his fingertips.
From BBC • May 8, 2025
Fadi popped in a new roll of film and threaded it into the take-up spool.
From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai
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.
