ppl. a. [f. SPINDLE sb. or v.]
1. Of corn: Shot up into the slender pointed stalks which afterwards bear the ear.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. xvii. 258. Of the seede sowen, at one instant, some is spindled, some is in the eare, and some doth but bud.
1608. Willet, Hexapla Exod., 178. Then the corne was spindled and began to be eared.
1764. Museum Rust., II. 253. He must then … go among the spindled corn.
b. With up: Overgrown in height or length in proportion to strength or stoutness.
1855. Chamier, My Travels, I. x. 167. A tall, thin king, spindled up like a weak geranium.
1885. Bazaar, 30 March, 1255/3. These are fine compact bushy plants and not spindled up rubbish.
2. Attenuated, thin, slender.
1584. B. R., trans. Herodotus, II. 76. There be two mountaines … arising into sharpe and spindled tops.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Praise Clean Linen, Ded., Wks. II. 165. A good Legge is a great grace if it be discreetly essex’d in the calfe, and not too much spindled in the small.
3. Spindle-shaped; slightly bulging.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 460. In the former state, teats are very apt to become corded or spindled.
4. Twisted or wound on the spindle.
1866. J. B. Rose, trans. Ovid’s Met., 93. The Minyeides … With rosy fingers twirl the spindled wool.
