REEL, noun [See reel to stagger.] 1. A frame or machine turning on an axis, and on which yarn is extended for winding, either into skeins, or from skeins on to spools and quills. On a reel also seamen wind their log-lines, etc. 2. A kind of dance. REEL, verb transitive To gather yarn from the spindle. REEL, verb intransitive To stagger; to incline or move in walking, first to one side and then to the other; to vacillate. He with heavy fumes opprest, reel'd from the palace and retir'd to rest. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man. Psalms 107:27.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI