A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 2001 (DOST Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1500-1698
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Spin(n)ing-quheill, Spynnyn(g)-quheil, n. Also: spynning-, -and-, spyneing-, spynneyne-, spineing-, -yne-, spinding-, speneyn- and -quhele, -quheyl, -quhell, -quill, -wheill, -wheel. [Late ME and e.m.E. spynyng wheel (1404), spynnyng whele (1475), spynnyng qweyll (1542), Du. spinnewiel, north. Fris. spenweel; Spin(n)ing vbl. n. and Quhel(e n.] A spinning-wheel.(a) 15… Aberd. B. Rec. MS XVI p. 651 (Jam., s.v. Kakeriss).
Ane spinyne quheill 1513 Doug. ix viii 35.
Furth of hir hand the spynnyng quheil [Ruddim. spynning quhele] smate sche, The ȝarn clewis, spyndill and broche of tre, All swakkit our [L. excussi manibus radii revolutaque pensa] 1522 Dunferm. B. Rec. I 209.
Ane spynnyn quhell 1535–6 Dunferm. Reg. Ct. 129.
Ane spynneyne quheill 1552 Old Dundee II 241.
Ane spinning quheill, and ane pair of cairds 1560 Stirling B. Rec. I 74.
Ane spynning quheill, ane pair of camis, ane pair of cardis 1566 Prestwick B. Rec. 70.
Wylȝame Getty accusyt Jonat Getty for ane speneyn quheyl quhylk he suld hayf of his ayrschip 1567 Kirkcaldy B. Rec. App. 314.
Ane spynnyng quheill 1588–9 Glasgow B. Rec. I 129. 1595 Brechin Testaments I 128b.
Ane spyneing quheill … ane taiffill 1599 Black Bk. Taymouth 335.
Woman hous of Finlarg … off new spynning quheillis, ii; off auld spynnyng quheillis, ii; off irne spynnillis, ii; … Woman hous of Balloch Off spynning quheillis, ii; off quheill spynnillis in Finlarg and Balloch, ii 1627 Banff Ann. I 57.
[Alexander Smothstone, skipper, complains to the bailies of a neighbour in the Seatown who … ] brock my weschell in my ambrie and my spineing quheill 1647 Edinburgh Testaments LXIII 126b.
Thrie spining wheills, twa laying wheills 1675 Bk. Old Edinb. C. VI 129.
Ane spining wheill, ane fyning wheill, ane old lint wheill 1680 Hist. Fam. Seton 589.
[He was curtly informed that] a spinning-wheel was a sufficient tocher a1693 Urquhart Rabelais iii xxviii (1737) III 395.
Wouldst thou … slander the spinning-quills … of the weird sisters, Parcae(b) 1687 Hector Renfrewshire Rec. I 45.
[The music of the] spinding [wheel was almost unceasingly heard] 1698 Hector Renfrewshire Rec. II 154.
[To ply both the lint and wool] spinding wheels
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"Spining-quheill n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 17 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/spinning_quheill>
