reel

Meanings

Noun

• A shaky or unsteady gait.
• A lively dance originating in Scotland; also, the music of this dance; often called a Scottish (or Scotch) reel.
• A kind of spool, turning on an axis, on which yarn, threads, lines, or the like, are wound.
• A machine on which yarn is wound and measured into lays and hanks, —-- for cotton or linen it is fifty-four inches in circuit; for worsted, thirty inches.
• A device consisting of radial arms with horizontal stats, connected with a harvesting machine, for holding the stalks of grain in position to be cut by the knives.
• A short compilation of sample film work used as a demonstrative resume in the entertainment industry.

Verb

• To wind on a reel.
• To spin or revolve repeatedly.
• To unwind, to bring or acquire something by spinning or winding something else.
• To walk shakily or unsteadily; to stagger; move as if drunk or not in control of oneself.
• To back off or step away unsteadily and quickly.
• To make or cause to reel.
• To have a whirling sensation; to be giddy.
• To be in shock.
• To produce a mechanical insect-like song, as in grass warblers.
• To roll.

Origin

• From Middle English reel, reele, from Old English reol, hreol, from Proto-Germanic *hrehulaz, from Proto-Indo-European *krek-. Cognate with Icelandic ræl, hræll.