spool

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A cylinder of wood, plastic, cardboard, or other material on which wire, thread, or string is wound.
2. n. The amount of wire, thread, or string wound on such a cylinder.
3. n. Something similar to such a cylinder in shape or function.
4. n. A reel for magnetic tape.
5. v. To wind or be wound on or off a spool.
6. v. To store (data sent to a printer) in a buffer, allowing the program that sent the data to the printer to resume its normal operation.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A small cylinder of wood or other material (with a projecting disk at each end), upon which thread or yarn is wound; a reel.
2. n. The revolving metal shaft of an anglers′ reel, upon which the fishing-line is wound. See cut under reel.
3. To wind on a spool.
4. n. In electricity, the reel or bobbin upon which a resistance coil, magnet coil, or sometimes the field coil of a generator or motor is wound.

Wiktionary

1. n. A device around which thread, wire or cable is wound, especially a cylinder or spindle.
2. n. computing A temporary storage area for electronic mail, etc.
3. v. To wind on a spool or spools.
4. v. computing To send files to a device or a program (a spooler or a daemon that puts them in a queue for processing at a later time).
5. n. A small swimming pool that can be used also as a spa.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A piece of cane or reed with a knot at each end, or a hollow cylinder of wood with a ridge at each end, used to wind thread or yarn upon.
2. v. To wind on a spool or spools.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. transfer data intended for a peripheral device (usually a printer) into temporary storage
2. v. wind onto a spool or a reel
3. n. a winder around which thread or tape or film or other flexible materials can be wound