noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A tool used to make skeins from yarn, consisting of a central bar with crossbars at each end, offset from each other by 90°.

Etymology

Origin obscure. Perhaps from niddy (“grandmother”) + noddy, from the nodding motion associated with winding the yarn.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.