Chapter Reel to Reference of R by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

Reel to Reference

Reel
(Reel) n. [Gael. righil.] A lively dance of the Highlanders of Scotland; also, the music to the dance; — often called Scotch reel.

Virginia reel, the common name throughout the United States for the old English "country dance," or contradance Bartlett.

Reel
(Reel), n. [AS. krel: cf. Icel. krll a weaver's reed or sley.]

1. A frame with radial arms, or a kind of spool, turning on an axis, on which yarn, threads, lines, or the like, are wound; as, a log reel, used by seamen; an angler's reel; a garden reel.

2. A machine on which yarn is wound and measured into lays and hanks, — for cotton or linen it is fifty- four inches in circuit; for worsted, thirty inches. McElrath.

3. (Agric.) A device consisting of radial arms with horizontal stats, connected with a harvesting machine, for holding the stalks of grain in position to be cut by the knives.

Reel oven, a baker's oven in which bread pans hang suspended from the arms of a kind of reel revolving on a horizontal axis. Knight.

Reel
(Reel), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Reeled (r?ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Reeling. ]

1. To roll. [Obs.]

And Sisyphus an huge round stone did reel.

Spenser.

2. To wind upon a reel, as yarn or thread.

Reel
(Reel), v. i. [Cf. Sw. ragla. See 2d Reel.]

1. To incline, in walking, from one side to the other; to stagger.

They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man.

Ps. cvii. 27.

He, with heavy fumes oppressed,
Reeled from the palace, and retired to rest.

Pope.

The wagons reeling under the yellow sheaves.

Macaulay.

2. To have a whirling sensation; to be giddy.

In these lengthened vigils his brain often reeled.

Hawthorne.

Reel
(Reel), n. The act or motion of reeling or staggering; as, a drunken reel. Shak.

Reëlect
(Re`ë*lect") v. t. To elect again; as, to reëlect the former governor.

Reëlection
(Re`ë*lec"tion) n. Election a second time, or anew; as, the reëlection of a former chief.

Reeler
(Reel"er) n.

1. One who reels.

2. (Zoöl.) The grasshopper warbler; — so called from its note. [Prov. Eng.]

Reëligible
(Re*ël"i*gi*ble) a. Eligible again; capable of reëlection; as, reëligible to the same office. — Re*ël`i*gi*bil"i*ty n.