skein

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A length of thread or yarn wound in a loose long coil.
2. n. Something suggesting the coil of a skein; a complex tangle: a twisted skein of lies.
3. n. A flock of geese or similar birds in flight. See Synonyms at flock¹.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A fixed length of any thread or yarn of silk, wool, linen, or cotton, doubled again and again and knotted. The weight of a skein is generally determined so that the number of skeins in a given quantity of thread can be estimated by the weight. Braid, binding, etc., are sometimes, though more rarely, sold in skeins.
2. n. A flight or company: said of certain wild fowl, as geese or ducks.
3. n. A shaved split of osier used in wickerwork.
4. n. In a vehicle, the iron head or thimble upon the end of a wooden axletree, inclusive of the straps by which it is attached to the axle, and which, being set in recesses flush with the wood, afford hearing surfaces for the box in the hub.
5. n. An obsolete form of skean.
6. n. In cytology, same as spireme.
7. To wind (yarn) into hanks of definite lengths other than the normal.

Wiktionary

1. n. 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 round a fifty-four inch reel.
2. n. figuratively A web, a weave, a tangle.
3. n. wagonmaking A metallic strengthening band or thimble on the wooden arm of an axle.
4. n. zoology, provincial England A group of wild fowl, (e.g. geese, goslings) when they are in flight.
5. n. sports A winning streak.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A quantity of yarn, thread, or the like, put up together, after it is taken from the reel, -- usually tied in a sort of knot.
2. n. (Wagon Making) A metallic strengthening band or thimble on the wooden arm of an axle.
3. n. (Zoöl.), Prov. Eng. A flight of wild fowl (wild geese or the like).

WordNet 3.0

1. n. coils of worsted yarn