skein
Pronunciation Noun
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Pronunciation Noun
skein (plural skeins)
A quantity of yarn, thread, or the like, put up together, after it is taken from the reel. A skein of cotton yarn is formed by eighty turns of the thread around a fifty-four inch reel. - 1935, T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral, Part I:
- You hold the skein: wind, Thomas, wind
- The thread of eternal life and death.
- 1935, T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral, Part I:
- (figuratively) A web, a weave, a tangle.
- 1923, Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Adventure of the Creeping Man"
- The practical application of what I have said is very close to the problem which I am investigating. It is a tangled skein, you understand, and I am looking for a loose end.
- 1923, Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Adventure of the Creeping Man"
- (zoology) The membrane of a fish ovary.
- (wagonmaking) A metallic strengthening band or thimble on the wooden arm of an axle.
- (zoology, provincial England) A group of wild fowl, (e.g. geese, goslings) when they are in flight.
- (sports) A winning streak.
- French: écheveau
- German: Strang
- Italian: matassa
- Portuguese: meada, madeixa
- Russian: мото́к пря́жи
- Spanish: madeja
- Spanish: enredo
- French: membrane des oeufs
skein (skeins, present participle skeining; past and past participle skeined)
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.007