Reeling

How to spell reeling

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce reeling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reeling mean?

1. verbStaggering or whirling unsteadily, or feeling stunned and disoriented by a shock.
2. verbWinding a fishing line or other cord onto a reel, especially to draw in a catch.

Reeling in a sentence

• After the late tackle he went reeling across the pitch.

• He spent the morning reeling in trout from the cold river.

• The whole department is still reeling from the sudden round of layoffs.

• She kept reeling the slack cable back onto the drum.

Where does reeling come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word reel comes from the Old English hreol, the name for the rotating frame or spool on which thread and yarn were wound, a sense it has carried for well over a thousand years. From that physical winding action the verb developed two related ideas: literally turning line onto a spool, and figuratively spinning or whirling about. By the late medieval period reel was being used for a giddy, staggering motion, as if a person were being spun like a reel, and the lively Scottish dance called the reel takes its name from the same whirling movement. The form reeling simply adds the -ing participle ending to reel, and the spelling trap lies entirely in the vowels: the word keeps its double e from hreol but only a single l, so writers who instinctively double the consonant before -ing can stumble.

How the word is built

• reel (verb: to wind, or to stagger)
• -ing (present participle suffix)