gin

Definitions

1. 1.Contrivance; artifice; a trap; a snare. Chaucer. Spenser.
2. 2.(a) A machine for raising or moving heavy weights, consisting of a tripod formed of poles united at the top, with a windlass, pulleys, ropes, etc. (b) (Mining) A hoisting drum, usually vertical; a whim.
3. 3.A machine for separating the seeds from cotton; a cotton gin. Note: The name is also given to an instrument of torture worked with screws, and to a pump moved by rotary sails. Gin block, a simple form of tackle block, having one wheel, over which a rope runs; -- called also whip gin, rubbish pulley, and monkey wheel. -- Gin power, a form of horse power for driving a cotton gin. -- Gin race, or Gin ring, the path of the horse when putting a gin in motion. Halliwell. -- Gin saw, a saw used in a cotton gin for drawing the fibers through the grid, leaving the seed in the hopper. -- Gin wheel. (a) In a cotton gin, a wheel for drawing the fiber through the grid; a brush wheel to clean away the lint. (b) (Mining) the drum of a whim.
4. 4.To catch in a trap. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.
5. 5.To clear of seeds by a machine; as, to gin cotton.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Related questions

• What does "gin" mean?

Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is gin.

• What is contrivance; artifice; a trap; a snare. Chaucer. Spenser called?
• What is to clear of seeds by a machine; as, to gin cotton called?