SPOOL
What does "SPOOL" mean?
A cylinder on which thread, wire, film, or tape is wound for storage.
Meanings
- A reel or cylinder around which something flexible is wound. She threaded the sewing machine from a fresh spool of cotton.
- To wind onto, or unwind from, a reel. The projectionist spooled the film carefully to avoid creasing it.
- To send data to a buffer so a slower device, like a printer, can process it at its own pace. The document spools to the queue and prints once the laser warms up. technical
Did you know?
- In computing, SPOOL is a backronym for 'Simultaneous Peripheral Operations On-Line', a buffering technique IBM developed in the 1950s so a fast CPU need not wait on slow printers.
Word origin
From Middle Dutch 'spoele' or Middle Low German 'spole', a reel for winding thread, entering English in the 14th century.
Remember it
A spool has a hole down the middle - and so does the double-O in its name.
A little poem
Wound tight, it holds the whole long line in rest;
let go one end, and miles slip from its chest.
couplet
Wordplay
- The thread on the empty spool had nothing left to give - it had reached the end of its rope.
What it teaches
Anything wound too tight unspools the moment you give it an end to pull.
Quick facts
What does SPOOL mean?
A cylinder on which thread, wire, film, or tape is wound for storage.
Is SPOOL a valid word?
Yes — SPOOL is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is SPOOL?
SPOOL has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does SPOOL come from?
From Middle Dutch 'spoele' or Middle Low German 'spole', a reel for winding thread, entering English in the 14th century.
What can SPOOL teach us?
Anything wound too tight unspools the moment you give it an end to pull.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.