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thread

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Thread and /thread

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English thred, þred, threed, from Old English þrǣd, from Proto-Germanic *þrēduz, from Proto-Indo-European *treh₁-tu-s, from *terh₁- (“rub, twist”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Träid (“thread, wire”), West Frisian tried, Dutch draad, German Draht, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish tråd, and Icelandic þráður. Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian dredh (“twist, turn”). More at throw.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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knotted thread

thread (plural threads)

  1. A cord formed by spinning or twisting together textile fibers or filaments into one or more continuous strands, typically used in needlework.
    Synonym: string
  2. (weaving) A piece of yarn, especially said of warps and wefts in a woven fabric.
  3. Any of various natural (as spiderweb, etc.) or manufactured filaments (as glass, plastic, metal, etc.).
    the threads of a spiderweb
    • 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./1/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
      He walked. To the corner of Hamilton Place and Picadilly, and there stayed for a while, for it is a romantic station by night. The vague and careless rain looked like threads of gossamer silver passing across the light of the arc-lamps.
  4. A slender stream of water.
    a thread of water
  5. The line midway between the banks of a stream.
  6. (engineering) A screw thread.
  7. The continuing course of life; thread of life.
  8. An ordered course, that which connects the successive points in a discourse.
    1. A line of reasoning, sequence of ideas, or train of thought.
      I’ve lost the thread of what you’re saying.
      • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter XVIII:
        I was pondering these things, when an incident, and a somewhat unexpected one, broke the thread of my musings.
      • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Chapter 21:
        ‘Let him go on. Do not interrupt him. He cannot go back, and maybe could not proceed at all if once he lost the thread of his thought.’
    2. A continuing theme that modifies the whole discourse.
      Synonym: topic
      All of these essays have a common thread.
  9. (computing) A unit of execution, lighter in weight than a process, usually sharing memory and other resources with other threads executing concurrently.
  11. (Internet) A series of posts or messages, consisting of an initial post and responses to it, generally relating to the same subject, on a newsgroup, Internet forum, or social media platform.
  12. A sequence of connections.
  13. A precarious condition; something that which offers no real or otherwise perceived security.
    a life hanging by a thread
  14. (figurative, obsolete) The degree of fineness; quality; nature.

Hyponyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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to thread a needle (sense 1)
A man having his eyebrows threaded (sense 7)

thread (third-person singular simple present threads, present participle threading, simple past threaded or (archaic) thrid, past participle threaded or (archaic) thridden)

  2. (transitive) To pass a thread through the eye of a needle.
  3. (transitive) To fix (beads, pearls, etc.) upon a thread that is passed through; to string.
  4. (transitive, figurative) To make one's way through or between (a constriction or obstacles).
    to thread through narrow passages
    I think I can thread my way through here, but it’s going to be tight.
    • 1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 266:
      The line to Uganda goes up the side of a slope in a series of S-bends, and as the telegraph wires follow the line, from below they look like a forest as they thread backwards and forwards about six times.
    • 2013 October 19, Ben Smith, “Manchester United 1-1 Southampton”, in BBC Sport‎[1]:
      Picking the ball up in his own half, Januzaj threaded a 40-yard pass into the path of Rooney to slice Southampton open in the blink of an eye.
    1. To cautiously make (one's way) through a precarious place or situation.
      He threaded his way through legal entanglements.
  5. (transitive, figurative) To pass through; to pierce through; to penetrate.
    • 1670, John Pettus, Fodinæ Regales […], London: Printed by H. L. and R. B. […], page 2:
      And when the Miners by theſe Shafts or Adits do ſtrike or threed a Vein of any Metal […] then the Metal which is digged […] is called Oar […]
    • 1896 May 12, The Pall Mall Magazine, page 12:
      Tom out here will have leave to thrid you with bullets.
    • 1899, Bernard Capes, chapter 16, in Lady of Darkness, New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, page 122:
      Only the swifts were alert and busy, flashing, poising, diving under the eaves; thridding Ned's brain as they passed with a receding sound like that made by pebbles hopping over ice.
    • 1961 February, D. Bertram, “The lines to Wetherby and their traffic”, in Trains Illustrated, page 101:
      On the descent the line is often in cuttings; some are high, such as at Scarcroft, where a cut through firestone and fireclay was necessary, and near Bardsey, where the line threads a deep tree-lined gorge.
  6. (transitive) To interweave as if with thread; to intersperse.
    • 2010 April 1, Gayla Marty, Memory of Trees: A Daughter’s Story of a Family Farm, U of Minnesota Press, →ISBN, page 177:
      [...] the urban landscape threaded with parks and trees to the horizon. The enormous sky over that flat line dazzled clear blue or filled with towers of cumulus clouds.
    • 2014 June 30, G.B. Lindsey, Diana Copland, Libby Drew, Secrets of Neverwood: An Anthology, Carina Press, →ISBN:
      [...] dark hair threaded with gray pulled back from a face still beautiful in spite of clear evidence of the passage of time.
    • 2021 November 4, Steven Mithen, Land of the Ilich: Journey's into Islay's Past, Birlinn Ltd, →ISBN:
      [...] landscape threaded with rivers, roads, tracks, pathways and an airport runway; one peppered with villages, farms, crofts and distilleries. Visitors to Islay, especially those coming from densely populated urban areas, often mistakenly […]
    • 2023 May 2, Lucy Clarke, One of the Girls, Penguin, →ISBN, page 6:
      [...] dark hair threaded with early silver.
  7. (transitive) To form a screw thread on or in (a bolt, hole, etc.).
    Coordinate term: tap
    to thread a bolt
  9. (ambitransitive) To remove (facial hair) by way of a looped thread that is tightly wound in the middle.
    to thread your eyebrows and trim them
  10. (ambitransitive) To feed (a sewing machine or otherwise a projecting or exposing mechanism, such as a projector, a camera, etc.) with film. [(usually) with up]
  11. (transitive) To pass (a film or tape) through a projector, recorder, etc. so as to correct its path.
  12. (intransitive) Of boiling syrup: To form a threadlike stream when poured from a spoon.

Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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Anagrams

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French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English thread.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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thread m (plural threads)

  1. (anglicism, computing) thread
  2. (anglicism, Internet) thread

Synonyms

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Italian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English thread.

Noun

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thread m (invariable)

  1. (Internet) thread (series of messages)

Portuguese

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English thread.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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thread f (plural threads)

  1. (computing) thread (one of several units of execution running concurrently)
  2. (Internet) thread (series of grouped messages)
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