How to Use skein in a Sentence

skein

noun
  • And that was just the first of a four-tweet thread, a skein that ended with the rolling-on-the-floor-laughing emoji.
    Glenn Whipp, latimes.com, 25 Jan. 2018
  • The dozen skein paintings present disheveled amalgams of hues and weaves.
    Leah Ollman, latimes.com, 5 Jan. 2018
  • Most color keys will show the symbol, then the color number found on the skein of floss, then the name of that color.
    Sarah Martens, Better Homes & Gardens, 2 Aug. 2023
  • Skeins retail at $35, and all funds stay in Michigan and support the farmers, the mills and their future project.
    Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press, 30 June 2017
  • Farming and ranching groups from across the Great Plains sent skeins of fence wire and new metal posts to drive three feet into the soil.
    Jack Healy, New York Times, 20 Mar. 2017
  • East Asia’s growth pattern has for decades been likened to a skein of geese, from Japan at the vanguard to laggards such as Myanmar at the rear.
    The Economist, 30 Aug. 2017
  • Wrap one skein of thick orange yarn (or two skeins of thin orange yarn) around a 12-inch foam wreath form so the threads lay neatly.
    Sarah Martens, Better Homes & Gardens, 13 Oct. 2022
  • The glands hold two kinds of cells: one type is packed with tiny mucus sacs, and cells of the other type each hold one long protein-rich thread, coiled like a skein of yarn.
    Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 29 Mar. 2018
  • Her hair hung like a skein of silk, immune to humidity.
    New York Times, 5 Mar. 2022
  • Shade trees spindled past skeins of electrical wire, while the low plastic chairs of an open-air cafe sat neatly in the shade of a long, blank wall.
    New York Times, 20 Feb. 2018
  • But tugging at that thread unravelled a vast, tangled skein of male angst.
    The Economist, 7 Sep. 2017
  • Where another granny might clutch her knitting needle and skein of yarn, Neel has a paintbrush and a white painter’s rag.
    Julia Felsenthal, Vogue, 26 Feb. 2019
  • This was funny for a moment, and then not—a thin skein of anxiety started winding its way across the room.
    Zephyr Teachout, The New York Review of Books, 3 Aug. 2022
  • The tonnarelli cacio e pepe, a skein of strands adorned only with cheese and black pepper, nods to Roman shepherds who used the spice to keep warm.
    Los Angeles Magazine, 27 June 2017
  • The sky over Capitan Peak was going from orange and pink to deep blue and black, and long skeins of sandhill cranes coursed overhead.
    T. Edward Nickens, Field & Stream, 10 Mar. 2020
  • One was the 1966 poster of Bob Dylan that showed him with snakelike hair blossoming into a skein of rainbows.
    Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 20 Mar. 2023
  • Amid the books at her side is a bright orange skein of yarn and a pair of knitting needles -- the hobby keeps her calm and her attention stable.
    Reuters, ABC News, 5 June 2021
  • Her first notes stretched out atop a shimmer of percussion and a skein of strings, their attack marked by icy chimes and spindly xylophones.
    Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 9 May 2023
  • This should be the season the Mariners finally end the 21-year drought, the longest skein without a playoff berth in North American team sports.
    Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY, 18 Feb. 2022
  • The installation’s skein of lines might thus be read as mere abstraction, like a Jackson Pollock on the grass.
    Blake Gopnik, New York Times, 18 Aug. 2023
  • His house was another thread in the skein of complications that consumed his life, all of which were caused or made worse by a lack of money.
    New York Times, 23 Mar. 2021
  • The crochet pieces in this article used one skein of KnitPicks Palette in the colorway Chicory and a 3.75mm hook.
    Alyssa Fowers, Washington Post, 20 July 2023
  • Kalmerton has most success fishing skein or flies for the spawning chinook.
    Paul A. Smith, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 9 Oct. 2021
  • In the rear, scores of electrical cords sprawled across the floor keep the heaters and lights humming, a tangle that recalls the jumbled skeins of paint in a Jackson Pollock drip painting.
    Christopher Knight, latimes.com, 12 June 2019
  • The film begins with Deren bearing a skein of yarn and, with forced gaiety, recruiting Christiani for its winding (as Nin looms in the background).
    Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 16 Nov. 2022
  • But with seven of the next eight games on the road — starting with Wednesday’s visit to the New York Islanders — this could be a chance to get a negative skein out of their system.
    Frank Dell'apa, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Jan. 2023
  • Even the smell of an outhouse, braided with skeins of cigarette smoke, fondly connotes rustic life, my stint in a cabin in the black spruce here.
    Michael Engelhard, Alaska Dispatch News, 1 July 2017
  • To meet her deadline, Durant recruited a skein full of knitters to assist.
    Abby Ellin, BostonGlobe.com, 29 May 2018
  • To meet her deadline, Ms. Durant recruited a skein full of knitters to assist.
    Abby Ellin, New York Times, 23 May 2018
  • Here, cliffs rise at near-right angles to the highway, which is protected by giant skeins of webbing that catch the falling boulders.
    Thomas Curwen, latimes.com, 26 May 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'skein.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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