coil
See also: Coil
Contents
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle French coillir (“to gather, pluck, pick, cull”) (French: cueillir), from Latin colligo (“to gather together”), past participle collectus, from com- (“together”) + lego (“to gather”); compare legend. Doublet of cull.
NounEdit
coil (plural coils)
- Something wound in the form of a helix or spiral.
- the sinuous coils of a snake
- Washington Irving
- The wild grapevines that twisted their coils from tree to tree.
- Any intrauterine device (Abbreviation: IUD)—the first IUDs were coil-shaped.
- (electrical) A coil of electrically conductive wire through which electricity can flow.
- (figuratively) Entanglement; perplexity.
- a. 1722, Matthew Prior, “Human Life”, in H. Bunker Wright, Monroe K. Spears, editors, The Literary Works of Matthew Prior, volume I, Second edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1971, page 687:
- What trifling coil do we mortals keep;
Wake, eat, and drink, evacuate, and sleep.
SynonymsEdit
- (coil of conductive wire): inductor
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
something wound
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intra-uterine contraceptive device
electrical
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VerbEdit
coil (third-person singular simple present coils, present participle coiling, simple past and past participle coiled)
- To wind or reel e.g. a wire or rope into regular rings, often around a centerpiece.
- A simple transformer can be made by coiling two pieces of insulated copper wire around an iron heart.
- To wind into loops (roughly) around a common center.
- The sailor coiled the free end of the hawser on the pier.
- To wind cylindrically or spirally.
- to coil a rope when not in use
- The snake coiled itself before springing.
- (obsolete, rare) To encircle and hold with, or as if with, coils.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of T. Edwards to this entry?)
TranslationsEdit
wind into regular rings
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wind into loops
Etymology 2Edit
Origin unknown.
NounEdit
coil (plural coils)
- (now obsolete except in phrases) A noise, tumult, bustle, or turmoil.
- François Rabelais (in translation), Gargantua and Pantagruel
- And when he saw that all the dogs were flocking about her, yarring at the retardment of their access to her, and every way keeping such a coil with her as they are wont to do about a proud or salt bitch, he forthwith departed […]
- 1594, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act III:
- If the windes rage, doth not the Sea wax mad, / Threatning the welkin with his big-swolne face? / And wilt thou haue a reason for this coile?
- 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 162:
- this great Savage desired also to see him. A great coyle there was to set him forward.
- 1704, [Jonathan Swift], “Section IV”, in A Tale of a Tub. […], London: Printed for John Nutt, […], OCLC 752990886, pages 99–100:
- [T]hey continued ſo extremely fond of Gold, that if Peter ſent them abroad, though it were only upon a Complement; they would Roar, and Spit, and Belch, and Piſs, and Fart, and Snivle out Fire, and keep a perpetual Coyl, till you flung them a Bit of Gold; [...]
- François Rabelais (in translation), Gargantua and Pantagruel
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
noise
Further readingEdit
- coil in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- coil in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
AnagramsEdit
IrishEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
coil m
- vocative singular of col (“prohibition; sin, lust; violation; dislike; incest; relation, relationship”)
- genitive singular of col (“prohibition; sin, lust; violation; dislike; incest; relation, relationship”)
MutationEdit
| Irish mutation | ||
|---|---|---|
| Radical | Lenition | Eclipsis |
| coil | choil | gcoil |
| Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. | ||