Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

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

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To wind on bobbins or spools, as thread.
  • noun A reel or spool for holding thread.
  • noun 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.
  • noun A narrow tape or small cord of cotton or linen.
  • noun A hank of Russian flax, consisting of 6, 9, or 12 heads, according to the quality.
  • noun A machine which takes the slubbing from the first frame and converts it into a coarse yarn.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun 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.
  • noun 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.
  • noun The little rounded piece of wood, at the end of a latch string, which is pulled to raise the latch.
  • noun (Haberdashery) A fine cord or narrow braid.
  • noun (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.
  • noun a roving machine.
  • noun lace made on a pillow with bobbins; pillow lace.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a winder around which thread or tape or film or other flexible materials can be wound

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French bobine.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French bobine, recorded in English since 1530

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Examples

  • "I'm what they call a bobbin-girl -- I tie the threads on the bobbins when they are empty."

    Samuel the Seeker Upton Sinclair 1923

  • With nice thread in bobbin and on the top of the machine, either do some FMQ, or just stich some simple lines, etc.

    Arch revisted, box in detail - and a great postcard katelnorth 2008

  • The bobbin is wound: and there are fifty-nine precious hours to be lived through before – meeting the seven o'clock postman as he pedals eastward across the Marsh with the sun in his eyes – one need begin to unwind it again.

    Try Anything Twice 1938

  • This improved class of hooks are provided with a much deeper cavity than those first introduced, an arrangement permitting of the employment of a more commodious bobbin, which is generally covered by a cap, as in the revolving shuttle, but free to revolve.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 598, June 18, 1887 Various

  • The machines were started at Nottingham in England, early in the nineteenth century, and were called bobbin-net, or point-net, or warp-net, machines, and the lace first made was often finished and enriched by hand.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 8: Infamy-Lapparent 1840-1916 1913

  • -- A bobbin is a sort of little wooden spool with a handle to it; there are several varieties of them but we have confined ourselves to a representation of the kind considered best for beginners.

    Encyclopedia of Needlework Th��r��se de Dillmont 1868

  • In addition to the retainer that porters in the market are paid, they also earn "bobbin" payments for the amount of fish they carry, a term which refers to the leather hats that used to be worn to carry the fish on the porters 'heads, which featured a brim to catch fish juices.

    Billingsgate fish market: 'There is a way of life here and it is being destroyed' 2010

  • In a good week they can expect to earn about £460, comprising a fixed retainer plus "bobbin" (taking fish out of the market) at 18p a stone (6. 4kg) and "in store" (bringing it in) at 4p a stone.

    Billingsgate fish market: 'There is a way of life here and it is being destroyed' 2010

  • a bobbin, which is, after all, only a needle with an extra long thread.

    Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving Grace Christie

  • She went to the weddin 'bobbin' red white and blue.

    Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender (3) 1967

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