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s, consisting of about thirty species of tropical shrubs, with simple leaves and spirally twisted, five-celled capsules; -- also called twisted-horn, and twisty. -- Screw valve, a stop valve which is opened or closed by a screw. -- Screw worm (Zoöl.), the larva of an American fly (Compsomyia macellaria), allied to th…

Abounding in scrog; also, twisted; stunted. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.] Halliwell.

ht thin stuff of silk. [Written also cendal, and sendal.] Chaucer. Wore she not a veil of twisted sendal embroidered with silver Sir W. Scott.

ange of figure in consequence of excessive strain, as from compression, tension, bending, twisting, etc.; as, the set of a spring.

Cracked or checked; split. See Shake, n., 2. Nor is the wood shaken or twisted. Barroe.

the great disparity in the sizes of the sexes. -- Silk thrower, Silk throwster, one who twists or spins silk, and prepares it for weaving. Brande & C. -- Silk tree (Bot.), an Asiatic leguminous tree (Albizzia Julibrissin) with finely bipinnate leaves, and large flat pods; -- so called because of the abundant long si…

Not doubled, twisted together, or combined with others; as, a single thread; a single strand of a rope.

Turned or twisted to one side; situated obliquely; skewed; -- chiefly used in technical phrases. Skew arch, an oblique arch. See under Oblique. -- Skew back. (Civil Engin.) (a) The course of masonry, the stone, or the iron plate, having an inclined face, which forms the abutment for the voussoirs of a segmental arch.…

Silk not yet twisted; floss; -- called also sleave silk. Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care. Shak.

See Sleave, untwisted thread.

A strand, or slender roll, of cotton or other fiber in a loose, untwisted state, produced by a carding machine and ready for the roving or slubbing which preceeds spinning.

A roll of wool slightly twisted; a rove; -- called also slubbing.

In general, to turn about; to twist; -- often used reflexively and followed by round. [Colloq.] They laughed, and slued themselves round. Dickens.

An East Indian climbing shrub (Ophioxylon serpentinum) which has the roots and stems twisted so as to resemble serpents.

listers. See Blister beetle under Blister, and Cantharis. -- Spanish fox (Naut.), a yarn twisted against its lay. -- Spanish grass. (Bot.) See Esparto. -- Spanish juice (Bot.), licorice. -- Spanish leather. See Cordwain. -- Spanish mackerel. (Zoöl.) (a) A species of mackerel (Scomber colias) found both in Europe a…

A machine for drawing and twisting slivers to form rovings.

To draw out, and twist into threads, either by the hand or machinery; as, to spin wool, cotton, or flax; to spin goat's hair; to produce by drawing out and twisting a fibrous material. All the yarn she [Penelope] spun in Ulysses' absence did but fill Ithaca full of moths. Shak.

The long, round, slender rod or pin in spinning wheels by which the thread is twisted, and on which, when twisted, it is wound; also, the pin on which the bobbin is held in a spinning machine, or in the shuttle of a loom.

A spinneret. Ring spinner, a machine for spinning, in which the twist, given to the yarn by a revolving bobbin, is regulated by the drag of a small metal loop which slides around a ring encircling the bobbin, instead of by a throstle.

The occasional twisted growth of the parts of a flower.