Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GIN, n.² [A contraction of engine.]

1. A machine or instrument by which the mechanical powers are employed in aid of human strength. The word is applied to various engines, as a machine for driving piles, another for raising weights, &c.; and a machine for separating the seeds from cotton, invented by E. Whitney, is called a cotton-gin. It is also the name given to an engine of torture, and to a pump moved by rotary sails.
2. A trap; a snare. Milton. Shak.