• IPA^(key): /spuːl/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /spʉl/
• Rhymes: -uːl

From Middle English spole (possibly via Old Northern French spole, espole), from Middle Dutch spoele, from Old Dutch *spōla, *spuola, from Proto-Germanic *spōlǭ (“spool”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pel- (“to cleave, split”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Spoule (“spool”), Dutch spoel (“spool”), German Spule (“spool”), Swedish spole (“spool”), Icelandic spóla (“spool; reel”). The aviation usage is based on the visual similarity of one of the spools of a turbine engine to a spool used for thread (especially in cross-section). See also spill.

spool (plural spools)

1. A reel; a device around which thread, wire or cable is wound, especially a cylinder or spindle.
   • 2011, Rebekah Modrak, Bill Anthes, Reframing Photography: Theory and Practice:

     If you need to reload film, the cassette can be rewound slightly by turning the hub located on one end of its spool.

2. (aviation) One of the rotating assemblies of a gas turbine engine, composed of one or more turbine stages, a shaft, and one or more compressor or fan stages.

   The high-pressure spool rotates faster than the intermediate- and low-pressure spools, as the high-pressure turbine is driven by superheated combustion gases straight out of the burners, while the high-pressure compressor has to spin very fast to compress air that has already been compressed and heated by the low- and intermediate-pressure compressors.

3. (computing) A temporary storage area for electronic mail, etc.
4. (West Yorkshire) A splinter caught in the skin.

(rotating assembly of a turbine engine):

• spool down; spooldown
• spool up; spoolup

spool (third-person singular simple present spools, present participle spooling, simple past and past participle spooled)

1. To wind on a spool or spools.
2. (computing) To send files to a device or a program (a spooler or a daemon that puts them in a queue for processing at a later time).

From blend of spa +‎ pool.

spool (plural spools)

1. A small swimming pool that can be used also as a spa.

• Loops, OOPLs, Sloop, loops, polos, pools, sloop