Forms: 3–4 spinnere, 4–6 spynner, 5 -ere, spynnare, 6 -ar, 5– spinner. [f. SPIN v. + -ER1. Cf. MDu. spinnere (Du. spinner), MHG. spinre (G. spinner).]
I. 1. A spider, esp. one that spins a web.
Freq. c. 1530–1615: now dial. or rhet.
c. 1220. Bestiary, 462. Natura aranee.… Ðe spinnere on hire swid ȝe [? read spindle] weveð.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 469. Spynnare, or erany, aranea.
1495. Trevisa’s Barth. De P. R., XVIII. ix. (W. de W.), 763. A serpent … sucketh gladly the moysture therof as the spynner suckyth flies.
1527. Andrew, Brunswyke’s Distyll. Waters, B j b. What a persone is stynged of a spynner.
1574. Hyll, Bees, 10. The spinner through her web hanging downe before the hiue … doth much molest and trouble them.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 360. These be our common spiders or spinners which against wals use to stretch out their large webs as nets to catch poore flies.
1682. H. More, Annot. Glanvill’s Lux O., 220. A Spinner hanging by its weak thread from the brim of ones Hat.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Spinner,… a small sort of harmless Spider.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 654. The spinner’s web hangs in the yielding air incapable of molesting it.
1838. Murray’s Handbk. N. Germ., 19. The forlorn attempt of a solitary spinner to establish himself in the corner of a window.
1842. Dumfries Herald, Oct. Earwigs, beetles, and long-legged spinners, the living … residuum of the last cart-load of peas.
1876. Robinson, Whitby Gloss., Spinner, a spider.
attrib. c. 1475. Promp. Parv., 469 (K.). Spinnar webbe, tela aranee.
1855. [Robinson], Whitby Gloss., Spinner-web or Spinner-mesh, the spider’s web.
b. A caterpillar that spins a web or cocoon; a silkworm. rare.
1598. Florio, Cauagliere,… a silke worme or spinner.
1841. Harris, Insects Massachusetts, 239. Their caterpillars … are generally spinners, and, with few exceptions, make cocoons in which they are transformed.
c. dial. A daddy-longlegs, = JENNY-SPINNER 1. Also spinner-fly.
1848. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. 330. The larva of the long-legged spinner fly (Tipula oleracea, &c.).
2. One who spins cotton, wool, yarn, etc.; esp. one whose occupation it is to do this; a workman or workwoman engaged in spinning; one who attends to or works a spinning-machine.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. VII. 222. Hue spak to þe spynnesters [v.r. spinnere] to spynnen hit oute.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 1595. Sporiors, Spicers, Spynners of clothe.
1450. Rolls of Parlt., V. 201/2. Many Cloth makers, that is to wite, men, Wevers, Fullers, Diers; and women, Kempers, Carders and Spynners.
1536. Act 28 Hen. VIII., c. 4, ¶ 1. Weauers, tuckers, spinners, diers, and wulpikers.
1573–80. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 122. Drie flax get in, for spinners to spin.
1610–1. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 193. To a spinner, for spinning xvj days flaxe,… xvjd.
1679. T. Jordan, Lond. in Luster, 17. Carders, Spinners, Dyers, Wool-combers, Sheerers, Dressers, Fullers.
1744. H. Brooke, Love & Vanity, 211. Trust me from titled dames to spinners, ’Tis I make saints, whoe’er makes sinners.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. i. (1904), I. 8. The spinner is almost always a distinct person from the weaver.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Manch. Strike, 9. All present were spinners and power-loom weavers.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 1494/2. Previous to the invention of the mule few spinners could make yarn of 200 hanks to the pound.
fig. 1881. Miss Braddon, Asphodel, III. 175. My mother … was one of the lilies of the field,… my father … belonged to the toilers and spinners.
b. A manufacturer or merchant engaged in spinning, esp. cotton-spinning; a master-spinner.
1834. Penny Cycl., II. 346/1. For several years, the market prices of cotton twist were fixed by Arkwright, all other spinners conforming to his scale.
1863. Bright, Sp., Amer., 16 June (1876), 131. The wants of the spinners and the manufacturers of the world.
1881. H. Smart, Race for Wife, ii. The old county families are swept away by these spinners, brewers, solicitors, and such-like.
c. transf. The nightjar, Caprimulgus europæus.
1885. Swainson, Bird Names, 97.
3. fig. One who spins, tells or relates (a story, yarn, etc.).
[1621. Bp. Mountagu, Diatribæ, 134. You were ἀμάχιτος, not to be dealt withall by any Postillating Breuiarist, or Polyanthean spinner up of Sermon webs.]
1770. Monthly Rev., 72. Those mushroom romances, which our expert Novel spinners will manufacture in a Week.
1851. Hawthorne, Twice-told T., II. vi. 97. I am a spinner of long yarns.
1874. Geo. Eliot, Coll. Breakf.-P., 31. Osric, spinner of fine sentences.
1898. L. Stephen, Stud. Biogr., II. i. 5. Already an accomplished spinner of boyish stories.
4. a. = SPINNERET.
1815. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1818), I. 406. If you examine a spider, you will perceive in this part [of the abdomen] four little teat-like protuberances or spinners.
1839. Darwin, Voy. Nat., ., ix. 188. A spider … darted forth four or five threads from its spinners.
1875. Encycl. Brit., II. 292/1. The spinners consist of from one to three joints…; in Tetrablemma (Cambr.) they are enclosed in a kind of corneous sheath.
b. techn. A spinning-machine.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2269/2. Spinner, a general term for a spinning machine…. Specifically applied to a form of drawing and twisting device.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., II. 107/1. This gigantic spinner and weaver needs very little assistance from man.
5. One of the principal supporting threads of the spider’s web.
1861. Sat. Rev., 25 May, 525. Long dark cables … looking like the first radial ‘spinners’ constructed by the spider to carry the finer and continuous tissue of his web.
II. 6. Angling. a. One or other of several flies, or artificial imitations of these, used esp. in trout-fishing.
1787. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 104. June. The Palmers 5. The Great Red Spinner 5.
1799–. [see red spinner RED a. 19].
1867. F. Francis, Angling, vi. 172. The spinners are only second in the estimation of the trout to the duns. Ibid., 181. The Brown Spinner … is another capital fly.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 5 May, 4/2. He was using a small gilt spinner on fine tackle.
b. An angler who uses spinning-tackle.
1836. F. S[ykes], Scraps fr. Jrnl., 70. A great advantage for the spinner, as a quantity of baits are always to be had.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, viii. 246. The very best spinners for large trout in the world are Thames fishermen.
c. (See quots.) Also attrib.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 840/1. Spinner.… A trawling spoon-bait which revolves as it tows abaft the boat.
A flanged attachment in connection with a fishhook to cause a lively motion of the hook and bait.
1895. Outing, XXVI. 358. A 6–0 hook with a lively smelt wired to it spinner fashion.
7. a. A device that spins round or revolves; a teetotum, a top.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., IV. l. 383. Here is a small spinner with an iron axis: I spin the spinner, and then take it up by a magnet.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 25 July, 3/3. His favourite game was the Erratic Spinner.… These [i.e., ninepins] had to be knocked over with a top or spinner of polished steel.
b. A cricket-ball bowled with a spin.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 2 March, 5/2. [He] got an undeniable spinner past the stubborn bat of the Lancashire man.
8. Something that moves rapidly.
1881. Daily Tel., 5 July, 2/1. These crank and nimble spinners [i.e., racing yachts] give you no chance of looking about.
9. A workman who ‘spins’ metal plate.
1884. [see SPIN v. 11 d].
ǁ Spinner (a ship): see SPINACE.
