throstle

American  

[thros-uhl] / ˈθrɒs əl /

noun

1. British (chiefly Literary). the song thrush.

2. Obsolete. a machine for spinning wool, cotton, etc., in which the twisting and winding are simultaneous and continuous.

---

throstle British  

/ ˈθrɒsəl /

noun

1. a poetic name for the thrush, esp the song thrush

2. a spinning machine for wool or cotton in which the fibres are twisted and wound continuously

---

Etymology

Origin of throstle

before 900; Middle English, Old English; cognate with Dutch drossel, German Drossel; akin to Old Norse thrǫstr, Latin turdus thrush

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

throstle

"What do you think of this passage?" he scornfully asked a Shakespearean enthusiast: " 'I would as lief be thrust through a quicket hedge as cry Pooh to a callow throstle.'"

From Time Magazine Archive

The number rapidly increased, and in 1851 there were 66 cotton mills with 860,000 throstle spindles at work.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 2 "Bohemia" to "Borgia, Francis" by Various

In this way, they were, strictly speaking, rivals of the throstle doubling frame more than the spinning mule.

From The Story of the Cotton Plant by Frederick Wilkinson

I want to take my heart away, Break it away from the branch where it clings; I want to quit the barren spray Where now no throstle sings.

From Songs of Womanhood by Laurence Alma-Tadema

All in vain; the great bird of prey bore down upon him like a hawk upon a throstle, gaining, gaining every moment.

From The Monarchs of the Main, Volume I (of 3) Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers by Walter Thornbury