coil

noun

/kɔɪl/UK/kwaɪl/

Etymology

From Middle English coilen, from Old French coillir, cuillir (“to gather, pluck, pick, cull”) (modern French cueillir), from Latin colligō (“to gather together”), past participle collectus, from com- (“together”) + legō (“to gather”); compare legend. Doublet of cull.

derived from colligō — “to gather together”
derived from coillir
inherited from coilen

Definitions

1
Something wound in the form of a helix or spiral.
- the sinuous coils of a snake
- The wild grapevines that twisted their coils or tendrils from tree to tree.
2
Any intrauterine device (abbreviation
Any intrauterine device (abbreviation: IUD)—the first IUDs were coil-shaped.
- ‘I’m gonna go on the pill and get fitted for a coil. I don’t wanna be pregnant. Ever. Again!’
A coil of electrically conductive wire through which electricity can flow.
›+ 11 more definitionsshow fewer
1. A cylinder of clay.
2. 5
  Entanglement
  Entanglement; perplexity.
  - What trifling coil do we mortals keep; Wake, eat, and drink, evacuate, and sleep.
3. 6
  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.
4. 7
  To wind into loops (roughly) around a common center.
  - The sailor coiled the free end of the hawser on the pier.
5. 8
  To wind cylindrically or spirally.
  - to coil a rope when not in use
  - The snake coiled itself before springing.
6. To build a pot (etc) with clay coils.
7. 10
  To encircle and hold with, or as if with, coils.
  - a. 1757, Thomas Edwards, sonnet to Mr. Nathanael Mason Pleasure coil thee in her dangerous snare
8. 11
  A noise, tumult, bustle, or turmoil.
  - 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?
  - this great Savage desired also to see him. A great coyle there was to set him forward.
9. A wad of cash.
10. A surname.
11. Abbreviation of chemical oxygen-iodine laser.

The neighborhood

Derived

alpine coil, audio coil, blowout coil, chokecoil, choking coil, coilgun, coil gun, coilin, coilless, coilover, coil spring, coil-sprung, coil whine, coil winder, coily, cryocoil, eigencoil, field coil, Flemish coil, head coil, Helmholtz coil, honeycomb coil, ignition coil, impedance coil, inductance coil, induction coil, load coil, loading coil, microcoil, mosquito coil, multicoil, Oudin coil, overcoil, pedestal coil, plate number coil, resistance coil, Rogowski coil, Ruhmkorff coil, shading coil, spark coil · +12 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at coil. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

A definitional loop anchored at coil. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at coil

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA