Idioms

fold, spindle, or mutilate

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fold, spindle, or mutilate

To damage or alter something. The phrase was typically printed as an instruction on items that were to be read by a machine, such as punch cards. When I quit this job, I fully intend to fold, spindle, or mutilate my punch card! The receptionist handed us our punch cards and warned us, in a monotonous tone, not to fold, spindle, or mutilate them. Hey! Don't fold, spindle, or mutilate that card, or the machine won't be able to read it!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

fold, spindle, or mutilate

to harm or disfigure. Referring to a once-standard line printed on machine-readable documents, such as computer punch cards. (Such a document, if folded, placed on a bill spike, or otherwise punctured, would no longer be machine-readable.) At the bottom of the bill, it said "do not fold, spindle, or mutilate," and Jane, in her anger, did all three. Look here, chum, if you don't want to get folded, spindled, or mutilated, you had better do what you are told!
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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References in periodicals archive
To make two-ply yarn, take two singles strands (or both ends of the same strand), attach them both to your spindle, and twist them around each other in the opposite direction from how you originally spun them.
Hook your spindle on the loop and let it hang there--don't let go of the loop--and then give the spindle a clockwise spin with your other hand.
On EEG recordings, the spindle duration critically depends on its delimitation with the identification of spindle start and end which is heavily dependent on frequency analysis specifications (when the signal is filtered in a specific frequency range) and/or on an arbitrary amplitude threshold (Section 3.2).
No direct link has been found between spindle duration and frequency.
As a first step, the procedure detailed in the former work [26] was used to obtain a recording-specific amplitude threshold for the brain region (two EEG channels) by estimating the lower limit of the spindle amplitudes.
As spindle features are found to change dynamically during the night, we calculated all spindle features separately for the first and last part of nocturnal NREM sleep.
The TQC ViscoThinner comes without spindles, but in total three spindles are available: one plate and two ball spindles.
Conforming to ISO 2884 and BS 3900 A7 besides the spindles a range of verification oil kits are available.
The extent (focal/diffuse) and intensity (weak/moderate/strong) of positive staining within the stromal spindle cells of the benign sclerosing lesions and biopsy site were evaluated.
Within the stromal spindle cell component, approximately one-third of cases exhibited additional myxoid change and/or entrapped squamoid nests within the sclerosed stroma.
Researchers around the world are interested in the mechanisms of spindle formation because if chromosome segregation does not take place correctly in human cells, the process can cause cancer or birth defects.
* Lower the spindle until the straight edge almost touches the tabletop.
Now researchers have found that sleep spindles also play a role in strengthening new memories when newly learned information is played back to a person during sleep.
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