reel

n. [ Gael. righil. ] A lively dance of the Highlanders of Scotland; also, the music to the dance; -- often called Scotch reel. [ 1913 Webster ]

Virginia reel, the common name throughout the United States for the old English “country dance, ” or contradance (contredanse). Bartlett. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ AS. hreól: cf. Icel. hræll 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Reeled p. pr. & vb. n. Reeling. ] 1. To roll. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

And Sisyphus an huge round stone did reel. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To wind upon a reel, as yarn or thread. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act or motion of reeling or staggering; as, a drunken reel. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To elect again; as, to reelect the former governor. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Election a second time, or anew; as, the reelection of a former chief. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who reels. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) The grasshopper warbler; -- so called from its note. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]