Meaning of Skein | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A quantity of thread, yarn, etc., wound on a reel then removed and loosely knotted into an oblong shape; a skein of cotton is formed by eighty turns of thread around a reel with a fifty-four inch diameter.
2. A thin strip of an osier (“long, pliable twig from a plant, usually a willow”) used in basketmaking.
   transitive
3. A thing resembling a skein (noun etymology 1 sense 1) of thread, yarn, etc.
   broadly
4. The membrane of a fish ovary.
   broadly
5. A metallic strengthening band or thimble on the wooden arm of an axle of a wagon.
   US, dated, transitive
6. A group of wildfowl (for example, geese or swans) in flight.
   UK, broadly, collective, dialectal
7. Synonym of spireme (“the tangled mass of strands of chromatin seen in the early stages of mitosis, originally believed to be a single continuous strand (or two in a diploid cell, etc.)”).
   also, attributive, broadly, obsolete
8. A tangle, a weave, a web.
   figuratively
9. A winning streak.
   figuratively
10. A series created by a web (“major broadcasting network”).
    US, dated, figuratively

Equivalents

Examples

“Some for very nede / Layde downe a skeyne of threde, / And some a skeyne of yarne; […]”

“Reche me that skane of tewly sylk; / And, Wynde me that botowme of such an hew, / Grene, rede, tawny, whyte, blak, purpill, and blew.”

“Brau'd in mine ovvne houſe vvith a skeine of thred: / Avvay thou Ragge, thou quantitie, thou remnant, / Or I ſhall ſo be-mete thee vvith thy yard, / As thou ſhalt thinke on prating vvhil'ſt thou liu'ſt: […]”

“No vvhy art thou then exaſperate, thou idle immaterial skiene of ſleiue ſilke, thou greene ſacenet flap for a ſore eye, thou toſſell of a Prodigals purſe—thou […]”

No, why art thou then exasperate, thou idle immaterial skein of sleeve silk, thou greene sarsenet flap for a sore eye, thou tassel of a prodigal's purse—thou […]

“VVhat is ſhe heire to? a braſſe thimble, and / A skeane of brovvn thread?”

“Suppoſe novv a VVork-houſe for Employment of Poor Children, ſets them to ſpinning of VVorſted.—For every Skein of VVorſted theſe Poor Children Spin, there muſt be a Skein the leſs Spun by ſome poor Family or Perſon that ſpun it before; […] 'tis only the tranſpoſing the Manufacture from Colcheſter to London, and taking the Bread out of the Mouths of the Poor of Eſſex to put it into the Mouths of the Poor of Middleſex.”

“Knouel, der, oder Kna̔uel, a Bottom or Clevv of Thread or of Yarn, a Hank, a Skain of Yarn or Thread.”

“The aim of the rope-maker is to unite the strings of a great number of fibres. […] This is done by twisting or twining them together, which causes them to compress each other. […] Consequently, if we pull at this twisted skain, we shall not separate it by drawing one parcel out from among the rest, but the whole fibres will break; and if the distribution of the fibres has been very equable, the skain will be nearly of the same strength in every part.”

“[A] sharp-looking old dame, […] inhabited a "laigh [low] shop," anglicé [in English], a cellar, opening to the High-street by a strait and steep stair, at the bottom of which she sold tape, thread, needles, skeans of worsted, coarse linen cloth, and such feminine gear, to those who had the courage and skill to descend to the profundity of her dwelling, without falling headlong themselves, or throwing down any of the numerous articles which, piled on each side of the descent, indicated the profession of the trader below.”

““How horribly unjust of you!” cried Lord Henry, tilting his hat back and looking up at the little clouds that, like ravelled skeins of glossy white silk, were drifting across the hollowed turquoise of the summer sky.”

“The embroidery, which was a matter for thought, the design being difficult and the colours wanting consideration, brought lapses into the dialogue when she seemed to be engrossed in her skeins of silk, or, with head a little drawn back and eyes narrowed, considered the effect of the whole.”

“"He did have a beard, sir," replied Dorcas, smiling. "And well I know it, for he borrowed two skeins of my black wool to make it with! And I’m sure it looked wonderfully natural at a distance.[…]"”

“The more I leave the door unlatched / The sooner love is gone, / For love is but a skein unwound / Between the dark and dawn.”

“You hold the skein: wind, Thomas, wind / The thread of eternal life and death. / You hold this power, hold it.”

“High above the swallows and 2 miles or so out into the Channel was a skein of geese, probably brent geese on the first day of their emigration from the estuaries of the Channel coast towards the high Arctic tundra of Spitsbergen or Russia.”

“A group of geese is called a gaggle. […] They're only referred to as a gaggle when they're on land. When they're flying in formation they can be referred to as a skein.”

“Not that I ſee through his perplexed plots, / And hidden ends, nor that my parts depend / Vpon the vnvvinding this ſo knotted skeane, / Doe I beſeech your patience.”

“They diſentangle from the puzzled ſkein / In vvhich obſcurity has vvrapp'd them up, / The threads of politic and ſhrevvd deſign / That ran through all his purposes, […]”

“But first a little patience; first undo / This tangled thread, and wind it to a clue. / Ah, gentle! 'tis as weak as spider's skein; / And shouldst thou break it—What, is it done so clean?”

“[…] Achilles Tatius, with a feeling of much insecurity, awaited the unwinding of the perilous skein of state politics, […]”

“This evening Bathsheba was unusually excited, her red cheeks and lips contrasting lustrously with the mazy skeins of her shadowy hair.”

“He watched her pretty and unconscious munching through the skeins of smoke that pervaded the tent, and Tess Durbeyfield did not divine, as she innocently looked down at the roses in her bosom, that there behind the blue narcotic haze sat the 'tragic mischief' of her drama—he who was to be the blood-red ray in the spectrum of her young life.”

“But when she turned her thoughts to Morningside Park she perceived the tangled skein of life was now to be further complicated by his romantic importunity.”

“The practical application of what I have said is very close to the problem which I am investigating. It is a tangled skein, you understand, and I am looking for a loose end.”

“[S]cience is a complex skein, intricately interknotted across the artificial boundaries we draw only that we may the more easily encompass its parts in our mind. Pick up any thread of that skein and the whole structure will follow.”

“Then, beginning in 1959, the skein of convention began to unravel.”

“Ted began to walk, still dazed, until he found himself among a skein of backstreets so narrow they felt dark.”

“It was the latest in a skein of legal maneuvers by the prince [Prince Andrew, Duke of York]'s lawyers to defuse Ms. [Virginia] Giuffre's case.”

“All three tele skeins are pitching furiously to snag the super Easter Day tele show to be bankrolled by Frigidaire, but no decision has been reached at press time. […] Bankroller will buy time on the skein delivering the largest number of live coaxial outlets, but none of the webs are as yet able to make definite commitments.”

“Three comedy shows from the U.S. are in the CTV lineup: CBS-TV's Phil Silvers and Danny Thomas skeins and NBC-TV's "Harry's Girls."”

“[F]or the finer work, as table-mats, fruit and work-baskets, and the like, the osiers are divided into four parts, lengthways, which are called splits, and these are afterwards reduced to various degrees of fineness, when they are called skeins.”

“On November 21, Dow, one of the free-state settlers went to the blacksmith's shop unarmed, carrying a waggon skein to be repaired. While he was at the shop, Coleman and Buckley of Missouri, and another pro-slavery man came up, all armed, and an angry discussion followed.”

CEFR level