spinning jenny

an early spinning machine having more than one spindle, enabling a person to spin a number of yarns simultaneously.

Origin of spinning jenny

First recorded in 1775–85

Then came the spinning-jenny, which spun yarn with a hundred spindles on each machine.

Home Life in Colonial Days |Alice Morse Earle
Now, the coal-mines have aided the spinning-jenny, but the worsteds are overshadowed by other Norwich manufactures.

England, Picturesque and Descriptive |Joel Cook
To Hargreaves, inventing the spinning-jenny, a mob and a flight from Lancashire, a wrecked machine and a sacked house!

The Women of Tomorrow |William Hard
In that year James Hargreaves completed his invention of the spinning-jenny, which he patented in 1770.

The Great Events by Famous Historians, v. 13 |Various

Arkwright was a barber, and almost entirely illiterate when he invented the spinning-jenny.

The Memories of Fifty Years |William H. Sparks

spinning jenny

an early type of spinning frame with several spindles, invented by James Hargreaves in 1764

C18: see jenny; the reason for the adoption of the woman's name is unclear