spin

1 past tense and past participle spun verb

1 TURN AROUND (I, T) to turn around and around very quickly, or to make something do this: The ice skater was spinning faster and faster. | spin the roulette wheel | spin (sth/sb) around: Liz spun around on her heel to face me.

2 WOOL/COTTON (I, T) to make cotton, wool etc into thread by twisting it: The wool is spun into thread and then woven.

3 WET CLOTHES (T) to get water out of clothes using a machine after you have washed them

4 INSECT (T) if a spider or insect spins a web (1) or cocoon, it produces thread to make it

5 sb's head spins if your head spins, you feel as if you might faint because you are shocked, excited, or drunk: My head was spinning with all this new information.

6 spin a story/yarn/line (T) to tell someone a story that is not true in order to deceive them: beggars spinning hard-luck stories

7 DRIVE (intransitive always + adv/ prep) to drive or travel quickly

(+ past/along etc): Barbara waved as she spun past in her new sportscar. spin sth off phrasal verb (T)

1 to produce a new television programme using characters from another programme: `The Rifleman' spun off another new series, `Wanted Dead or Alive.'

2 to form a separate and partly independent company from parts of an existing company: The company spun off its financial services division in .

spin sth out phrasal verb (T)

1 to make something continue for longer than is necessary: I'm paid by the hour, so I spin the work out as long as I can.

2 to use money, food etc as carefully and slowly as possible because you do not have very much of it

(+ over): I've only got -10 left, so we'll have to spin it out over the whole week. 2 noun

1 TURNING (C) an act of turning around quickly: the spin of a top | The dance ended with a dramatic spin.

2 CAR (C) informal a short trip in a car for pleasure: Let's go for a spin in the country.

3 BALL (U) if you put spin on a ball in a game such as tennis or cricket (2), you deliberately make the ball turn very quickly so that it is difficult for your opponent to hit

4 fall/go into a (flat) spin

a) to become very confused and anxious: The sudden fall on the stock-market sent brokers into a spin.

b) if an aircraft goes into a spin it falls suddenly, turning around and around

5 WET CLOTHES give sth a spin BrE to turn clothes around very fast in a machine to remove water from them

6 INFORMATION (singular) informal especially AmE a way of providing information that makes it seem to be favourable for a particular person or political party: trying to put a positive spin on the economic figures

7 SCIENCE (singular) a quality of an elementary particle that influences its behaviour with other particles

—see also: spin doctor