Spin·dle n.
 1. The long, round, slender rod or pin in spinning wheels by which the thread is twisted, and on which, when twisted, it is wound; also, the pin on which the bobbin is held in a spinning machine, or in the shuttle of a loom.
 2. A slender rod or pin on which anything turns; an axis; as, the spindle of a vane. Specifically: --
 (a) Mach. The shaft, mandrel, or arbor, in a machine tool, as a lathe or drilling machine, etc., which causes the work to revolve, or carries a tool or center, etc.
 (b) Mach. The vertical rod on which the runner of a grinding mill turns.
 (c) Founding A shaft or pipe on which a core of sand is formed.
 3. The fusee of a watch.
 4. A long and slender stalk resembling a spindle.
 5. A yarn measure containing, in cotton yarn, 15,120 yards; in linen yarn, 14,400 yards.
 6. Geom. A solid generated by the revolution of a curved line about its base or double ordinate or chord.
 7. Zool. (a) Any marine univalve shell of the genus Rostellaria; -- called also spindle stromb. (b) Any marine gastropod of the genus Fusus.
 Dead spindle Mach., a spindle in a machine tool that does not revolve; the spindle of the tailstock of a lathe.
 Live spindle Mach., the revolving spindle of a machine tool; the spindle of the headstock of a turning lathe.
 Spindle shell. Zool. See Spindle, 7. above.
 Spindle side, the female side in descent; in the female line; opposed to spear side. --Ld. Lytton. [R.] “King Lycaon, grandson, by the spindle side, of Oceanus.” --Lowell.
 Spindle tree Bot., any shrub or tree of the genus Eunymus. The wood of Eunymus Europaeus was used for spindles and skewers. See Prickwood.