skein
English
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “skein”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)
Alternative forms
- (obsolete) skean
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English skeyne, (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French escaigne, (deprecated template usage) [etyl] French écagne, probably of Celtic origin, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to split off”)
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.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)
- (zoology, provincial England) A group of wild fowl, (e.g. geese, goslings) when they are in flight.
- (sports) A winning streak.
Translations
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Verb
skein (third-person singular simple present skeins, present participle skeining, simple past and past participle skeined)
See also
Anagrams
Faroese
Pronunciation
Noun
skein f (genitive singular skeinar, plural skeinir)
Declension
Declension of skein | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
f2 | singular | plural | ||
indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
nominative | skein | skeinin | skeinir | skeinirnar |
accusative | skein | skeinina | skeinir | skeinirnar |
dative | skein | skeinini | skeinum | skeinunum |
genitive | skeinar | skeinarinnar | skeina | skeinanna |
Related terms
- (common): skeina
Verb
skein
Icelandic
Verb
Norwegian Bokmål
Alternative forms
Verb
skein
Norwegian Nynorsk
Verb
skein
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from French
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/eɪn
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Zoology
- Requests for quotations/Knight
- en:Sports
- English verbs
- English collective nouns
- English words not following the I before E except after C rule
- Faroese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Faroese lemmas
- Faroese nouns
- Faroese feminine nouns
- Faroese non-lemma forms
- Faroese verb forms
- Norwegian Bokmål non-lemma forms
- Norwegian Bokmål verb forms
- Norwegian Nynorsk non-lemma forms
- Norwegian Nynorsk verb forms