Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Reel \Reel\, n. [AS. kre?l: cf. Icel. kr?ll a weaver's reed or
   sley.]
   1. A frame with radial arms, or a kind of spool, turning on
      an axis, on which yarn, threads, lines, or the like, are
      wound; as, a log reel, used by seamen; an angler's reel; a
      garden reel.

   2. A machine on which yarn is wound and measured into lays
      and hanks, -- for cotton or linen it is fifty-four inches
      in circuit; for worsted, thirty inches. --McElrath.

   3. (Agric.) A device consisting of radial arms with
      horizontal stats, connected with a harvesting machine, for
      holding the stalks of grain in position to be cut by the
      knives.

   {Reel oven}, a baker's oven in which bread pans hang
      suspended from the arms of a kind of reel revolving on a
      horizontal axis. --Knight.