coil

Etymology 1

From Middle English coilen, from Old French coillir, cuillir (“to gather, pluck, pick, cull”) (modern French cueillir), from Latin colligō (“to gather together”), past participle collectus, from com- (“together”) + legō (“to gather”); compare legend. Doublet of cull.

noun

1. Something wound in the form of a helix or spiral.
   the sinuous coils of a snake
2. Any intrauterine device (abbreviation: IUD)—the first IUDs were coil-shaped.
   ‘I’m gonna go on the pill and get fitted for a coil. I don’t wanna be pregnant. Ever. Again!’ 2020, Paul Mendez, Rainbow Milk, Dialogue Books (2021), page 293
3. (electronics) A coil of electrically conductive wire through which electricity can flow.
4. A cylinder of clay.
   (The first step in making coil pottery is learning how to roll a clay coil.)
5. (figurative) Entanglement; perplexity.

verb

1. To wind or reel e.g. a wire or rope into regular rings, often around a centerpiece.
   A simple transformer can be made by coiling two pieces of insulated copper wire around an iron heart.
2. To wind into loops (roughly) around a common center.
   The sailor coiled the free end of the hawser on the pier.
3. To wind cylindrically or spirally.
   to coil a rope when not in use
   The snake coiled itself before springing.
4. To build a pot (etc) with clay coils.
5. (obsolete, rare) To encircle and hold with, or as if with, coils.
   a. 1757, Thomas Edwards, sonnet to Mr. Nathanael Mason Pleasure coil thee in her dangerous snare

Etymology 2

Unknown.

noun

1. (now obsolete except in phrases) A noise, tumult, bustle, or turmoil.
   a. 1738, Thomas Urquhart, Peter Anthony Motteux, and John Ozell (translators), François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel And when he saw that all the dogs were flocking about her, yarring at the retardment of their access to her, and every way keeping such a coil with her as they are wont to do about a proud or salt bitch, he forthwith departed […]
   this great Savage desired also to see him. A great coyle there was to set him forward. 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 162