bobbin

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A spool or reel that holds thread or yarn for spinning, weaving, knitting, sewing, or making lace.
2. n. Narrow braid formerly used as trimming.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A reel or spool for holding thread. Specifically— One of the weights used to steady the threads in pillow-lace making, each bobbin having a slender neck around which a part of the thread is wound; formerly made of bone, but now commonly of wood.
2. n. Hence Either of the two spool-shaped parts of an electromagnet, consisting of a central core of soft iron wound around with a considerable length of fine insulated copper wire.
3. n. A narrow tape or small cord of cotton or linen.
4. n. A hank of Russian flax, consisting of 6, 9, or 12 heads, according to the quality.
5. n. A machine which takes the slubbing from the first frame and converts it into a coarse yarn.
6. To wind on bobbins or spools, as thread.

Wiktionary

1. n. A spool or cylinder around which wire is coiled.
2. n. In a sewing machine, the small spool that holds the lower thread.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A small pin, or cylinder, formerly of bone, now most commonly of wood, used in the making of pillow lace. Each thread is wound on a separate bobbin which hangs down holding the thread at a slight tension.
2. n. A spool or reel of various material and construction, with a head at one or both ends, and sometimes with a hole bored through its length by which it may be placed on a spindle or pivot. It is used to hold yarn or thread, as in spinning or warping machines, looms, sewing machines, etc.
3. n. The little rounded piece of wood, at the end of a latch string, which is pulled to raise the latch.
4. n. (Haberdashery) A fine cord or narrow braid.
5. n. (Elec.) A cylindrical or spool-shaped coil or insulated wire, usually containing a core of soft iron which becomes magnetic when the wire is traversed by an electrical current.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a winder around which thread or tape or film or other flexible materials can be wound