spool
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.
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.
to wind.
to unwind.
Origin of spool
1Other words from spool
- spooler, noun
- spoollike, adjective
- un·spool, verb (used with object)
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use spool in a sentence
If the DNA is not unwound from its various spools — proteins called histones — the cell’s machinery can’t read the hidden code.
The Epigenetic Secrets Behind Dopamine, Drug Addiction and Depression | R. Douglas Fields | October 27, 2020 | Quanta MagazineThe histone spool that a specific gene’s DNA winds around is marked with a specific chemical tag, like a molecular Post-it note.
The Epigenetic Secrets Behind Dopamine, Drug Addiction and Depression | R. Douglas Fields | October 27, 2020 | Quanta MagazineIt will never stack back on the spool as neatly, and will become harder and harder to pull out the more you use it.
Six ways to make your ATV even more rugged | By Tyler Freel/Outdoor Life | September 17, 2020 | Popular-ScienceAnd then spooling that back, right to the beginning and have her be in on the deception.
To find another turnover as stark as the shift of 2006-08 requires spooling back to 1932.
At the further twisting and plying of the cotton, the processes succeeding the spooling, men are employed.
Making Both Ends Meet | Sue Ainslie Clark and Edith WyattThe children employed at spooling and hemming usually suffer grave injuries to the health and constitution.
The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 | Frederick EngelsThere was a click, and then the sharp hum of the wire re-spooling itself on the original drum.
The God in the Box | Sewell Peaslee WrightI told him that I was tired of spooling and knew I could make more by something else.
The Woman Who Toils | Mrs. John Van Vorst and Marie Van VorstUniform circular into uniform rectilinear motion; used in spooling frames for leading or guiding the thread on to the spools.
The Library of Work and Play: Mechanics, Indoors and Out | Fred T. Hodgson
British Dictionary definitions for spool
/ (spuːl) /
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
(sometimes foll by up) to wind or be wound onto a spool or reel
Origin of spool
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for 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.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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