skein
A quantity of thread, yarn, etc., wound on a reel then removed and loosely knotted…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.
» Skeins of geese were flying back to the mudflats at sunset.
Gänseschwärme flogen bei Sonnenuntergang zurück ins Watt.
Meaning
9 sensesA 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.
Gebinde
мото́кmotók, мото́к пря́жиmotók prjáži
клубокklubok, мотокmotok
A thing resembling a skein (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1) of thread, yarn, etc.
(broadly)The membrane of a fish ovary.
(UK, broadly, collective, dialectal)A group of wildfowl (for example, geese or swans) in flight.
Schar
(figuratively)A tangle, a weave, a web.
(figuratively)A winning streak.
(US, dated, figuratively)A series created by a web (“major broadcasting network”).
(transitive)A thin strip of an osier (“long, pliable twig from a plant, usually a willow”) used in basketmaking.
(US, dated, transitive)A metallic strengthening band or thimble on the wooden arm of an axle of a wagon.
A thing resembling a skein (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1) of thread, yarn, etc.
(also, attributive, broadly, obsolete)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.)”).
- coils of worsted yarn
Examples
1 sentencesSkeins of geese were flying back to the mudflats at sunset.
deGänseschwärme flogen bei Sonnenuntergang zurück ins Watt.
Translations
8 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
By meaning 2
Origin
The noun is derived from Middle English skaine, skayne (“quantity of string, thread, etc.,The 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”).
From Dutch scheen (“strip of metal or wood; (anatomy) shin”), from Middle Dutch schene, from Old Dutch *skina, from Proto-West Germanic *skinu (“bar; track; (anatomy) shin; spine”), from Proto-Germanic *skinō (“piece; plate; rim; (anatomy) shinbone”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to dissect; to split”). Doublet of shin.
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