Emily Dickinson Lexicon

REEL, n. [Sax. hreol, reol. See Reel, to stagger.]

1. A frame or machine turning on an axis, and on which yarn is extended for winding, either into skains, or from skains on to spools and quills. On a reel also seamen wind their log-lines, &c.
2. A kind of dance peculiar to Scotland, usually written in common time.
3. An instrument or machine used by anglers to draw in their lines rapidly, when a fish is taken.