SPOOL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does spool mean? 

• SPOOL (noun)
  The noun SPOOL has 1 sense:

1. a winder around which thread or tape or film or other flexible materials can be wound

  Familiarity information: SPOOL used as a noun is very rare.

• SPOOL (verb)
  The verb SPOOL has 2 senses:

1. transfer data intended for a peripheral device (usually a printer) into temporary storage

2. wind onto a spool or a reel

  Familiarity information: SPOOL used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPOOL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A winder around which thread or tape or film or other flexible materials can be wound

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

bobbin; reel; spool

Hypernyms ("spool" is a kind of...):

winder (mechanical device around which something can be wound)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "spool"):

filature (a bobbin used in spinning silk into thread)

shuttle (bobbin that passes the weft thread between the warp threads)

Derivation:

spool (wind onto a spool or a reel)

• SPOOL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they spool    ... he / she / it spools   
Past simple: spooled   
Past participle: spooled   
-ing form: spooling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Transfer data intended for a peripheral device (usually a printer) into temporary storage

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "spool" is one way to...):

transfer (move from one place to another)

Domain category:

computer science; computing (the branch of engineering science that studies (with the aid of computers) computable processes and structures)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Wind onto a spool or a reel

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "spool" is one way to...):

roll; twine; wind; wrap (arrange or or coil around)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "spool"):

cheese (wind onto a cheese)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

spool (a winder around which thread or tape or film or other flexible materials can be wound)

 Context examples 

The boy early developed a mechanical genius which delighted his father and distracted his mother, for he tried to imitate every machine he saw, and kept the nursery in a chaotic condition, with his 'sewinsheen', a mysterious structure of string, chairs, clothespins, and spools, for wheels to go 'wound and wound'.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)