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Noun
In the ’90s, the two artists collaborated on an installation in which a thick skein of synthetic black hair connected their grade school class portraits, taken in Toronto and Honolulu.—Jenny Wu, ARTnews.com, 6 Nov. 2024 From wisps of activity, elaborate skeins of experience arise.—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 4 Oct. 2024 Linea del Tiempo, an installation of eighteen hanging wool skeins by Gutiérrez, each dyed a different shade, demonstrates the process.—Harrison Jacobs, ARTnews.com, 19 Sep. 2024 When the hagfish lets loose with a shot of slime, the skeins uncoil and combine with the salt water, blowing up more than 10,000 times its original size.—Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 20 June 2024 See all Example Sentences for skein
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English skeyne, from Middle French (Picard) escagne, probably from Vulgar Latin *scamnia, from *scamniare to wind yarn, from *scamnium rack for holding bobbins, from Latin scamnum bench, stool — more at shambles
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