spins

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of spin.

   The roulette wheel came up red on five straight spins.

   The menu offers playful spins on classic diner dishes.

   Note

   A regular plural, shared with the verb's he, she, it form, so the words around it decide which one you have. It counts separate instances: the spins a ball is given, rival spins on one set of figures, two short spins in the car, new spins on an old idea. Watch the article: the spins, with the, is a word for vertigo in its own right, not a plural of anything.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of spin.

   The Earth spins once on its axis roughly every twenty-four hours.

   His press office spins every setback as a change of strategy.

   Note

   One present-tense form covers both halves of an ergative verb: the wheel spins on its own, and she spins the wheel. It serves every meaning of the verb (the thread-maker, the DJ at the turntable, the gym class pedaling in place) so only the subject and the object tell you which spin is meant. The press use is transitive and can take as: the office spins a setback as a change of strategy.

3. 3
   nounplural

   Vertigo; the sensation that the room is spinning, especially from drink.

   He woke at three with the spins and clung to the mattress until they passed.

   A bad inner-ear infection can bring on the spins without a drop of alcohol.

   Similardizziness, vertigo

   Note

   A plural with no singular behind it, and one that almost always travels with the: you get the spins, wake with the spins, lie still until the spins pass. Agreement is plural, so the spins come back, never comes back. Unlike the countable plural of spin, it never counts anything. However many times the room lurches, it names one dizzy state.

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