Noah Webster
Reel
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.