reel

reel¹

—reelable, adj.

/reel/, n.

1. a cylinder, frame, or other device that turns on an axis and is used to wind up or pay out something.

2. a rotatory device attached to a fishing rod at the butt, for winding up or letting out the line.

3. Photog.

a. a spool on which film, esp. motion-picture film, is wound.

b. a roll of motion-picture film.

c. a holder for roll film in a developing tank.

4. a quantity of something wound on a reel.

5. Chiefly Brit. a spool of sewing thread; a roller or bobbin of sewing thread.

6. off the reel,

a. without pause; continuously.

b. without delay or hesitation; immediately. Also, right off the reel.

v.t.

7. to wind on a reel, as thread, yarn, etc.

8. to unwind (silk filaments) from a cocoon.

9. to pull or draw by winding a line on a reel: to reel a fish in.

10. reel off, to say, write, or produce quickly and easily: The old sailor reeled off one story after another.

[bef. 1050; (n.) ME rele, OE hreol; c. ON hraell weaver's rod; (v.) ME relen, deriv. of rele]

reel²

/reel/, v.i.

1. to sway or rock under a blow, shock, etc.: The boxer reeled and fell.

2. to waver or fall back: The troops reeled and then ran.

3. to sway about in standing or walking, as from dizziness, intoxication, etc.; stagger.

4. to turn round and round; whirl.

5. to have a sensation of whirling: His brain reeled.

v.t.

6. to cause to reel.

n.

7. an act of reeling; a reeling or staggering movement.

[1300-50; ME relen, appar. deriv. of rele REEL¹]

Syn. 3. See stagger.

reel³

/reel/, n.

1. a lively Scottish dance.

2. See Virginia reel.

3. music for either of these dances.

[1575-85; special use of REEL²]

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▪ cinematography

      in motion pictures, a light circular frame with radial arms and a central axis, originally designed to hold approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) of 35-millimetre motion-picture film. In the early days of motion pictures, each reel ran about 10 minutes, and the length of a picture was indicated by the number of its reels. A film was a “one-reeler,” a “two-reeler,” or longer.

      The number of reels in a motion picture became a point of controversy in the United States when the Motion Picture Patents Company (1909–17), a trust of major film producers and distributors who attempted a monopoly of the industry from 1909 to 1912, limited the length of films to one or two reels because the viewing audience was considered incapable of appreciating motion pictures of greater duration. Multiple-reel films achieved widespread acceptance in 1912, however, becoming known thereafter as “feature” films. The word reel has lost its original meaning in terms of time, since a modern projector accommodates reels holding from 2,000 to 3,000 feet of 35-millimetre film, while the so-called mini-theatres often mount an entire movie on a single reel.

▪ dance

      genre of social folk dance, Celtic in origin. It is a variety of country dance in which the dancers perform traveling figures alternating with “setting” steps danced in one place. Reels may be for sets of two or more couples. The music is in quick ²/₄ or ⁴/₄ time and usually has an insistent 16th-note motion.

      Scottish reels are mentioned as early as the 16th century. Except in the Scottish Highlands, they disappeared under the influence of the Presbyterian church in the 17th century; they reappeared in the Scottish Lowlands after 1700. The Irish reel, or cor, is distinguished by more complex figurations and styling and may be either a solo or a set dance to reel music. Reels are danced, less commonly, in England and Wales and, as the ril, in Denmark. Popular reels include the Irish Sixteenhand Reel and the Scottish reels Mairi's Wedding and the Duke of Perth.

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