Definition: reel

Source: WordNet (r) 1.7

reel
     n 1: a roll of photographic film holding a series of frames to be
          projected by a movie projector
     2: music composed for dancing a reel
     3: winder consisting of a revolving spool with a handle;
        attached to a fishing rod
     4: a winder around which thread or tape or film or other
        flexible materials can be wound [syn: bobbin, spool]
     5: a lively dance of Scottish highlanders; marked by circular
        moves and gliding steps [syn: Scottish reel]
     6: an American country dance which starts with the couples
        facing each other in two lines [syn: Virginia reel]
     v 1: walk as if unable to control one's movements [syn: stagger,
           keel, lurch, swag, careen]
     2: revolve quickly and repeatedly around one's own axis; "The
        dervishes whirl around and around without getting dizzy"
        [syn: spin, spin around, whirl, gyrate]
     3: move unsteadily or with a weaving or rolling motion [syn: wamble,
         waggle]
     4: wind onto or off a reel

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Reel \Reel\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Reeled (r?ld); p. pr. & vb.
   n. Reeling. ]
   1. To roll. [Obs.]

            And Sisyphus an huge round stone did reel.
                                                  --Spenser.

   2. To wind upon a reel, as yarn or thread.

Reel \Reel\, v. i. [Cf. Sw. ragla. See 2d Reel.]
   1. To incline, in walking, from one side to the other; to
      stagger.

            They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken
            man.                                  --Ps. cvii.
                                                  27.

            He, with heavy fumes oppressed, Reeled from the
            palace, and retired to rest.          --Pope.

            The wagons reeling under the yellow sheaves.
                                                  --Macaulay.

   2. To have a whirling sensation; to be giddy.

            In these lengthened vigils his brain often reeled.
                                                  --Hawthorne.

Reel \Reel\ (r?l), n. [Gael. righil.]
   A lively dance of the Highlanders of Scotland; also, the
   music to the dance; -- often called Scotch reel.

   Virginia reel, the common name throughout the United States
      for the old English ``country dance,'' or contradance
      (contredanse). --Bartlett.

Reel \Reel\, n. [AS. kre?l: cf. Icel. kr?ll a weaver's reed or
   sley.]
   1. A frame with radial arms, or a kind of spool, turning on
      an axis, on which yarn, threads, lines, or the like, are
      wound; as, a log reel, used by seamen; an angler's reel; a
      garden reel.

   2. 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. --McElrath.

   3. (Agric.) 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.

   Reel oven, a baker's oven in which bread pans hang
      suspended from the arms of a kind of reel revolving on a
      horizontal axis. --Knight.

Reel \Reel\, n.
   The act or motion of reeling or staggering; as, a drunken
   reel. --Shak.