spin out

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spin out (third-person singular simple present spins out, present participle spinning out, simple past and past participle spun out)

1. (intransitive, idiomatic) To prolong; to make longer (in time).
   • 1941 October, “Notes and News: L.N.E.R. Locomotive Performance in War Conditions”, in Railway Magazine, page 473:

     After Ashby summit it was difficult to spin out the more than ample schedule allowance.

2. (automotive, of a vehicle, intransitive) To rotate about the yaw axis while skidding, such that the vehicle's longitudinal axis is no longer aligned with its direction of linear motion.

   Two cars spun out on the icy road and wound up in a ditch.

3. (automotive, of a driver, transitive, intransitive) To cause one's vehicle to rotate about the yaw axis while skidding, such that the vehicle's longitudinal axis is no longer aligned with its direction of linear motion; or to experience such behavior from one's vehicle.

   The Formula One driver spun out on a tight curve.

   Bob accidentally spun out his Mercedes when he hit a patch of black ice.

4. (business) To form a subsidiary company which continues part of the prior operations of the parent company.

• (to make longer): drag out
• (automotive, business): spin off

• “spin out”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

• Toupins, nip-outs, outspin, pinouts, sit upon, sit-upon, spoutin', unipots