Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - spin

~1 past tense and past participle spun ~ v 1 »TURN AROUND« to turn around and around very quickly, or to make something do this  (The ice skater was spinning faster and faster. | spin the roulette wheel | spin (sth/sb) around)  (Liz spun around on her heel to face me.) 2 »WOOL/COTTON« to make cotton, wool etc into thread by twisting it  (The wool is spun into thread and then woven.) 3 »WET CLOTHES« to get water out of clothes using a machine after you have washed them 4 »INSECT« if a spider or insect spins a web (1) or cocoon, it produces thread to make it 5 sb's head spins if your head spins, you feel as if you might faint because you are shocked, excited, or drunk  (My head was spinning with all this new information.) 6 spin a story/yarn/line to tell someone a story that is not true in order to deceive them  (beggars spinning hard-luck stories) 7 »DRIVE« I always + adv/ prep) to drive or travel quickly + past/along etc  (Barbara waved as she spun past in her new sportscar.) spin sth off phr v 1 to produce a new television programme using characters from another programme  (`The Rifleman' spun off another new series, `Wanted Dead or Alive.') 2 to form a separate and partly independent company from parts of an existing company  (The company spun off its financial services division in .) spin sth out phr v 1 to make something continue for longer than is necessary  (I'm paid by the hour, so I spin the work out as long as I can.) 2 to use money, food etc as carefully and slowly as possible because you do not have very much of it + over  (I've only got -10 left, so we'll have to spin it out over the whole week.) ~2 n 1 »TURNING« an act of turning around quickly  (the spin of a top | The dance ended with a dramatic spin.) 2 »CAR« informal a short trip in a car for pleasure  (Let's go for a spin in the country.) 3 »BALL« if you put spin on a ball in a game such as tennis or cricket (2), you deliberately make the ball turn very quickly so that it is difficult for your opponent to hit 4 fall/go into a (flat) spin a) to become very confused and anxious  (The sudden fall on the stock-market sent brokers into a spin.) b) if an aircraft goes into a spin it falls suddenly, turning around and around 5 »WET CLOTHES« give sth a spin BrE to turn clothes around very fast in a machine to remove water from them 6 »INFORMATION« informal especially AmE a way of providing information that makes it seem to be favourable for a particular person or political party  (trying to put a positive spin on the economic figures) 7 »SCIENCE« a quality of an elementary particle that influences its behaviour with other particles  (- see also spin doctor)