reel Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a roll of photographic film holding a series of frames to be projected by a movie projector
  2. noun music composed for dancing a reel
  3. noun winder consisting of a revolving spool with a handle; attached to a fishing rod
  4. noun a winder around which thread or tape or film or other flexible materials can be wound
    spool; bobbin.
  5. noun a lively dance of Scottish Highlanders; marked by circular moves and gliding steps
    Scottish reel.
  6. noun an American country dance which starts with the couples facing each other in two lines
    Virginia reel.
  7. verb walk as if unable to control one's movements
    swag; lurch; stagger; keel; careen.
    • The drunken man staggered into the room
  8. verb revolve quickly and repeatedly around one's own axis
    whirl; spin; gyrate; spin around.
    • The dervishes whirl around and around without getting dizzy
  9. verb wind onto or off a reel

WordNet

Reel noun
Etymology
Gael. righil.
Definitions
  1. A lively dance of the Highlanders of Scotland; also, the music to the dance; -- often called Scotch reel.
Reel noun
Etymology
AS. krel: cf. Icel. krll a weaver's reed or sley.
Definitions
  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. Knight.
Reel transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Reeled present participle & verbal noun Reeling
Definitions
  1. To roll. Obs.
    And Sisyphus an huge round stone did reel. Spenser.
  2. To wind upon a reel, as yarn or thread.
Reel intransitive verb
Etymology
Cf. Sw. ragla. See 2d Reel.
Definitions
  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 noun
Definitions
  1. The act or motion of reeling or staggering; as, a drunken reel. Shak.

Webster 1913