Word.ws English Dictionary

reeled

reeled is the simple past and past participle of reel.

Meaning of reel

Verb

reel (third-person singular simple present reels, present participle reeling, simple past and past participle reeled)

  1. To wind on a reel.
  2. To spin or revolve repeatedly.
  3. To unwind; to bring or acquire something by spinning or winding something else.
    • He reeled off some tape from the roll and sealed the package.
  4. To walk shakily or unsteadily; to stagger; move as if drunk or not in control of oneself.
    • They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 107:27
  5. To back off, step away, or sway backwards unsteadily and suddenly.
    • He reeled back from the punch.
  6. To make or cause to reel.

See all 19 meanings of reel

Phrases with reeled

Words that rhyme with reeled

14 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about reeled

What is reeled the simple past and past participle of?
Reeled is the simple past and past participle of reel.

Words near reeled in the dictionary

  1. reelection
  2. reelectionist
  3. reelectionists
  4. reelections
  5. reelects
  6. reeled
  7. reeled in
  8. reeled off
  9. reeled out
  10. reeled up
  11. reeler

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: reeled (page history and authors); reel (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “reeled.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reeled. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.