coil

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See also: Coil

English[edit]

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Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle French coillir (“to gather, pluck, pick, cull”) (French: cueillir), from Latin colligo (“to gather together”), past participle collectus, from com- (“together”) + lego (“to gather”); compare legend.

Helical or coil springs

Noun[edit]

coil (plural coils)

  1. Something wound in the form of a helix or spiral.
    the sinuous coils of a snake
    • Washington Irving
      The wild grapevines that twisted their coils from tree to tree.
  2. Any intrauterine device (Abbreviation: IUD)—the first IUDs were coil-shaped.
  3. (electrical) A coil of electrically conductive wire through which electricity can flow.
  4. (figuratively) Entanglement; perplexity.
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from coil
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

coil (third-person singular simple present coils, present participle coiling, simple past and past participle coiled)

  1. To wind or reel e.g. a wire or rope into regular rings, often around a centerpiece.
    A simple transformer can be made by coiling two pieces of insulated copper wire around an iron heart.
  2. To wind into loops (roughly) around a common center.
    The sailor coiled the free end of the hawser on the pier.
  3. To wind cylindrically or spirally.
    to coil a rope when not in use
    The snake coiled itself before springing.
  4. (obsolete, rare) To encircle and hold with, or as if with, coils.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of T. Edwards to this entry?)
Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Origin unknown.

Noun[edit]

coil (plural coils)

  1. (now obsolete except in phrases) A noise, tumult, bustle, or turmoil.
    • François Rabelais (in translation), Gargantua and Pantagruel
      And when he saw that all the dogs were flocking about her, yarring at the retardment of their access to her, and every way keeping such a coil with her as they are wont to do about a proud or salt bitch, he forthwith departed […]
    • 1594, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act III:
      If the windes rage, doth not the Sea wax mad, / Threatning the welkin with his big-swolne face? / And wilt thou haue a reason for this coile?
    • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 162:
      this great Savage desired also to see him. A great coyle there was to set him forward.
    • 1704, Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub:
      they continued so extremely fond of gold, that if Peter sent them abroad, though it were only upon a compliment, they would roar, and spit, and belch, and piss, and f—t, and snivel out fire, and keep a perpetual coil, till you flung them a bit of gold […]
Quotations[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Irish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

coil m

  1. vocative singular of col (“prohibition; sin, lust; violation; dislike; incest; relation, relationship”)
  2. genitive singular of col (“prohibition; sin, lust; violation; dislike; incest; relation, relationship”)

Mutation[edit]

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
coil choil gcoil
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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