spool

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a cylinder or spindle around which thread, wire, film, or another flexible material is wound

   Jim found a wooden spool inside the large ball of hair and wax.

2. 2
   verb

   to wind material onto or off a spool

   The technician spooled the cable carefully onto its reel.

3. 3
   verb

   computing: to place data or a job in temporary storage until a device is ready to process it

   The system spooled the report while the printer was offline.

4. 4
   noun

   engineering: one of the rotating shaft assemblies in a gas-turbine engine

   The engine's high-pressure spool accelerated rapidly after ignition.

From Middle English spole, through northern French or Middle Dutch forms, ultimately from a Germanic word for a reel or spindle. Computing adopted the term for queued data imagined as being wound up for later processing; turbine engineering uses it for a similarly shaped rotating assembly.

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