spin v.1
1. to fail a candidate for a military or university examination; esp. in passive use, spun.
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Peregrine Pultuney I 64: Pultuney had just been made witness of the evils resulting from being plucked, or in Addiscombe [i.e. the East India Company Military Seminary] phraseology, being spun. | |
| Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Sept. 101: I'm sorry Sir to say that this won't do!! / [...] /I greatly fear / Lieutenant Sharpshins must be spun. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 223: Spin to reject from an examination. ? Army. | |
| White Rose 57: Don’t you funk being spun? | |
| Sl. Dict. 306: Spun when a man has failed in his examinations at Woolwich, he is said to be spun; as at the Universities he is said to be plucked or ploughed. | |
| Austral Eng. 125/2: To be ‘plucked,’ or ‘ploughed,’ or ‘spun,’ i.e. to fail an examination. | |
| Mint (1955) 75: For if I did [faint], the doctors might spin me as unfit. |
2. to make a claim, to ‘spin a line’.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Sun (N.Y.) 18 Oct. 11/1: All of ’em spin it at you that if they saw a sure enough live zwei buck note they’d make booby hatch motions in the air with their mitts. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sun. Times (Perth) 31 July 2nd sect. 10/4: Others - who backed Cohtra - reckon it’s just like the impudence of At Last’s clique to ‘spin up’ their mare against the one trained by Joe M’Gowan. | |
| Another Mug for the Bier 40: ‘I don’t like to have folks spin me. You know what I mean?’ [...] ‘Sure,’ I said. I wouldn’t spin you, Sam’. | |
| Blind Ambition 233: They know I’ll never spin them, so they’ve agreed to an arrangement whereby you can talk to them off the record. | |
| Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 21: Don’t be altercatin with how they spin your beef. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
In phrases
(W.I.) to give someone a hard time, to ‘lead someone a dance’.
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage. |
(Aus.) to tell a story.
 | Scrap-Iron Flotilla Preface: The men gathered groups in the messdecks to spin ‘dits’ about the more hectic times. | |
| Argot in DAUS (1993). |
see under hen n.
(US black) to go out dancing with a maid-servant on her night off.
| ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. |
see under wren n.
(Aus.) to court a woman.
| These Are My People (1957) 126: Why didn’t you sleep in her room? [...] You were spinning for her, weren’t you? |
(US) to lie, to brag.
| Maledicta 1 (Summer) 14: If he is fundamentally dishonest and a liar to boot, [...] He is accused of spinning it out of his ass, like a spider no doubt, and his audience needs a little ear-scoop to filter out the horseshit, or lies. |
of a woman, to bring a man to orgasm.
| Twelfth Night I iii: Excellent; it hangs like flax on a distaff, and I hope to see a housewife take thee between her legs, and spin it off. |
1. to be emotionally tense, to prepare oneself for action.
| Hiparama of the Classics 20: Out Come a Big Lion ’bout four times the size of a blowed up bull and this Cat is Spinnin’ his Wheels. |
2. (US) to waste time or work fruitlessly.
| ‘On Being a Black Man’ in Szwed Black America 226: The Afro-American, becoming black, esteems himself as having values as a person. Furthermore, he is able to live his life for the first time without spinning his wheels around inadequacy, insecurity, insincerity, or inexperience. | |
| Skeletons 201: I can’t take you with me – you’ll have to spin your wheels. | |
| Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 282: You been spinning your wheels all over the desert trying to trace a uke and find a cassette? | |
| Rivethead (1992) 13: You’ll be just like half the other morons in this city who end up spinnin’ their wheels [...] down at Chevrolet or over at Buick. | |
| ‘Stephanie’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 75: We’re spinning our wheels. It doesn’t matter. We get glimpses. | |
| Last Kind Words 124: ‘I doubt anyone can [help]. I’m just spinning my wheels’. |
3. (US campus) to excite, esp. sexually.
| Sl. U. 179: He really spins my wheels. |
(Aus. prison) to suffer the effects of prison life.
| Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Spin out. Exhibit emotional difficulty in handling prison life. A product of institutionalization. |
(orig. US) to wander from house to house, chatting and exchanging gossip.
| Widow Bedott Papers (1883) 54: They say when she ain’t a spinnin’ street yarn, she don’t dew nothin’ but write poitry. |
see under bat n.4
see under dope n.3
(W.I.) to waste one’s time attempting a frustrating task.
| cited in Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage (1996). |
In exclamations
a dismissive excl., synon. with sit on it/this (and rotate)! under sit v.
| Panopticon (2013) 200: ‘Spin on it, ya radge,’ John shouts back. |