Noah Webster
Gin
GIN, noun A contraction of Geneva, a distilled spirit. [See Geneva.]
GIN, noun [A contraction of engine.] A machine or instrument by which the mechanical powers are employed in aid of human strength. The word is applied to various engines, as a machine for driving piles, another for raising weights, etc., and a machine for separating the seeds from cotton, invented by E.Whitney, is called a cotton-gin. It is also the name given to an engine of torture, and to a pump moved by rotary sails.
1. A trap; a snare.
GIN, verb transitive To clear cotton of its seeds by a machine which separates them with expedition.
1. To catch in a trap.
GIN, verb intransitive To begin.