/skeɪn/
OriginThe noun is derived from Middle English skaine, skayne (“quantity of string, thread, etc., wound on a reel; the string, thread, etc., so wound”), from Old French escaigne (modern French écagne, écaigne (Picardy)); further etymology uncertain, probably from Proto-Celtic, from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to split off”).
The verb is derived from noun.
cognates
* Irish scáinne (“skein, clew”)
- 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.
“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'ſ”
- broadlyThe membrane of a fish ovary.
- UK, broadly, collective, dialectalA group of wildfowl (for example, geese or swans) in flight.
“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 ”
“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.”
- also, attributive, broadly, obsoleteSynonym 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.)”).
- figurativelyA tangle, a weave, a web.
“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?”
- figurativelyA winning streak.
- US, dated, figurativelyA series created by a web (“major broadcasting network”).
“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 ”
“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."”
- transitiveA thin strip of an osier (“long, pliable twig from a plant, usually a willow”) used in basketmaking.
“[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 degr”
- US, dated, transitiveA metallic strengthening band or thimble on the wooden arm of an axle of a wagon.
“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 anothe”
- transitiveTo weave or wind (thread, yarn, etc.) into a skein (noun etymology 1 sense 1).
“Under section 7 of Act March 3, 1883, referring to section 2907, Rev. St., if skeining worsted or mohair yarns is necessary to render them merchantable yarns, the cost of skeining is a part of the val”
- figuratively, transitiveTo intertwine or weave (something) with another thing.
“Water skeined the landscape. The Shannon River, lost since Limerick city, was drawing nearer to name the airport, and a tributary quickened its way towards it.”
Formsskeins(plural) · skain(alternative) · skean(alternative) · skeins(present, singular, third-person) · skeining(participle, present) · skeined(participle, past) · skeined(past)