skein

Meanings

Noun

• A quantity of yarn, thread, etc. put up together, after it is taken from the reel. A skein of cotton yarn is formed by eighty turns of the thread around a fifty-four inch reel.
• A web, a weave, a tangle.
• The membrane of a fish ovary.
• A metallic strengthening band or thimble on the wooden arm of an axle.
• A group of wild fowl, (e.g. geese, goslings) when they are in flight.
• A winning streak.
• A series created by a web .

Verb

• To wind or weave into a skein.

Origin

• From Middle English skayne, from Old French escaigne (Modern French écagne), probably of Proto-Celtic origin, from Proto-Indo-European *skend- ("to split off")