spool up

present singular third person spools up · participle present spooling up · participle past spooled up · past spooled up

1. To wind up onto a spool.
2. aeronauticsTo increase in rotational speed, producing an increase in thrust.

   The large rotational inertia of the heavy compressor and turbine rotors makes the engine slow to spool up from idle.

3. figurativelyTo be brought into full operation; to reach full potential or capacity.

   Near-synonym: spin up

   1 more example

   I guess it shows a couple of things, doesn't it; one is, when we're talking about 1941, although the industrial potential of the United States is there, the actual industrial production that we're so used to thinking of when it comes to World War II hasn't quite spooled up yet, because we're talking - we're talking there, about, as you say, they're quibbling about the Navy requisitioning a number of guns that's the equivalent to, later in the war, y'know, barrel-wise, the same number as you'd find as the heavy antiaircraft armament of a single battleship, and they're smaller guns[…]

   2021 December 7, Drachinifel, 25:02 from the start, in Pearl Harbour - Context, History, and an account from someone who was there, archived from the original on 21 Aug 2022

   Synonyms: spin up