{ Spil"let fish`ing (?), Spil"liard fish`ing (?), } A system or method
of fishing by means of a number of hooks set on snoods all on one line;
-- in North America, called trawl fishing, bultow, or bultow fishing,
and long-line fishing.
Spil"li*kin (?), n. See Spilikin.
Spill"way` (?), n. A sluiceway or passage for superfluous water in a
reservoir, to prevent too great pressure on the dam.
Spilt (?), imp. & p. p. of Spill. Spilled.
Spil"ter (?), n. [From Spill, n.] Any one of the small branches on a
stag's head. [Obs.] Howell.
Spilth (?), n. [From Spill.] Anything spilt, or freely poured out;
slop; effusion. [Archaic] "With drunken spilth of wine." Shak.
Choicest cates, and the flagon's best spilth.
R. Browning.
Spin (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spun (?) (Archaic imp. Span (&?;)); p.
pr. & vb. n. Spinning.] [AS. spinnan; akin to D. & G. spinnen, Icel. &
Sw. spinna, Dan. spinde, Goth. spinnan, and probably to E. span.
√170. Cf. Span, v. t., Spider.] 1. To draw out, and twist into
threads, either by the hand or machinery; as, to spin wool, cotton, or
flax; to spin goat's hair; to produce by drawing out and twisting a
fibrous material.
All the yarn she [Penelope] spun in Ulysses' absence did but fill
Ithaca full of moths.
Shak.
2. To draw out tediously; to form by a slow process, or by degrees; to
extend to a great length; -- with out; as, to spin out large volumes on
a subject.
Do you mean that story is tediously spun out?
Sheridan.
3. To protract; to spend by delays; as, to spin out the day in
idleness.
By one delay after another they spin out their whole lives.
L'Estrange.
4. To cause to turn round rapidly; to whirl; to twirl; as, to spin a
top.
5. To form (a web, a cocoon, silk, or the like) from threads produced
by the extrusion of a viscid, transparent liquid, which hardens on
coming into contact with the air; -- said of the spider, the silkworm,
etc.
6. (Mech.) To shape, as malleable sheet metal, into a hollow form, by
bending or buckling it by pressing against it with a smooth hand tool
or roller while the metal revolves, as in a lathe.
To spin a yarn (Naut.), to tell a story, esp. a long or fabulous tale.
-- To spin hay (Mil.), to twist it into ropes for convenient carriage
on an expedition. -- To spin street yarn, to gad about gossiping.
[Collog.]
Spin (?), v. i. 1. To practice spinning; to work at drawing and
twisting threads; to make yarn or thread from fiber; as, the woman
knows how to spin; a machine or jenny spins with great exactness.
They neither know to spin, nor care to toll.
Prior.
2. To move round rapidly; to whirl; to revolve, as a top or a spindle,
about its axis.
Round about him spun the landscape, Sky and forest reeled together.
Longfellow.
With a whirligig of jubilant mosquitoes spinning about each head.
G. W. Cable.
3. To stream or issue in a thread or a small current or jet; as, blood
spinsfrom a vein. Shak.
4. To move swifty; as, to spin along the road in a carriage, on a
bicycle, etc. [Colloq.]
Spin, n. 1. The act of spinning; as, the spin of a top; a spin a
bicycle. [Colloq.]