ETYM Cf. French spiral. Related to Spire a winding line.
1. Winding or circling round a center or pole and gradually receding from it.
2. Winding round a cylinder or imaginary axis, and at the same time rising or advancing forward; winding like the thread of a screw; helical.
3. Of or pertaining to a spiral; like a spiral.

ETYM Cf. French spirale. Related to Spiral.
1. A curve on a plane that winds around a center with an increasing distance from the center; SYN. volute.
2. A plane curve traced by a point circling about the center but at ever-greater distances from it.
3. Flying downward in a helical path with a large radius.
A plane curve formed by a point winding round a fixed point from which it distances itself at regular intervals, for example the spiral traced by a flat coil of rope. Various kinds of spirals can be generated mathematically—for example, an equiangular or logarithmic spiral (in which a tangent at any point on the curve always makes the same angle with it) and an involute. Spirals also occur in nature as a normal consequence of accelerating growth, such as the spiral shape of the shells of snails and some other mollusks.

To form a spiral