Reel (rl), n.
Etymology: [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.
4 other Webster entries under this spelling
Reel, n.
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, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Reeled (rld); 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, v. i.
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. Macualay.
2. To have a whirling sensation; to be giddy. In these lengthened vigils his brain often reeled. Hawthorne.
Reel, n.
The act or motion of reeling or staggering; as, a drunken reel. Shak.