thread

noun
/θɹɛd//θɾ̪̊ɛd/US

Etymology

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”). Cognates Cognate with Yola dreade (“thread”), Saterland Frisian Träid (“thread, wire”), Cimbrian draat (“string, thread”), Dutch draad (“thread, wire”), German Draht (“thread, wire”), Luxembourgish Drot (“wire”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish tråd (“thread, wire”), Faroese tráður (“thread”), Icelandic þráður (“thread”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian dredh (“twist, turn”). More at throw.

  1. inherited from *þrēduz
  2. inherited from þrǣd
  3. inherited from thred

Definitions

  1. A cord formed by spinning or twisting together textile fibers or filaments into one or…

    A cord formed by spinning or twisting together textile fibers or filaments into one or more continuous strands, typically used in needlework.

    • Woolen threads were an occult means, according to the Roman poet Horace, of depriving a person of virility.
  2. 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,…

    Any of various natural (as spiderweb, etc.) or manufactured filaments (as glass, plastic, metal, etc.).

    • the threads of a spiderweb
    • 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. + 20 more definitions
    1. A slender stream of water.

      • a thread of water
    2. The line midway between the banks of a stream.

    3. A screw thread.

    4. The continuing course of life

      The continuing course of life; the thread of life.

    5. An ordered course, that which connects the successive points in a discourse.

      • I’ve lost the thread of what you’re saying.
      • I was pondering these things, when an incident, and a somewhat unexpected one, broke the thread of my musings.
      • ‘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.’
    6. A unit of execution, lighter in weight than a process, usually sharing memory and other…

      A unit of execution, lighter in weight than a process, usually sharing memory and other resources with other threads executing concurrently.

    7. A series of posts or messages, consisting of an initial post and responses to it,…

      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.

    8. A sequence of connections.

    9. A precarious condition

      A precarious condition; something that which offers no real or otherwise perceived security.

      • a life hanging by a thread
    10. The degree of fineness

      The degree of fineness; quality; nature.

      • A neat courtier, / Of a most elegant thread.
    11. To pass a thread through the eye of a needle.

    12. To fix (beads, pearls, etc.) upon a thread that is passed through

      To fix (beads, pearls, etc.) upon a thread that is passed through; to string.

    13. 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.
      • 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.
    14. To pass through

      To pass through; to pierce through; to penetrate.

      • 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 […]
      • Tom out here will have leave to thrid you with bullets.
      • 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.
    15. To interweave as if with thread

      To interweave as if with thread; to intersperse.

      • [...] 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.
      • [...] dark hair threaded with gray pulled back from a face still beautiful in spite of clear evidence of the passage of time.
    16. To form a screw thread on or in (a bolt, hole, etc.).

      • Coordinate term: tap
      • to thread a bolt
    17. To remove (facial hair) by way of a looped thread that is tightly wound in the middle.

      • to thread your eyebrows and trim them
    18. To feed (a sewing machine or otherwise a projecting or exposing mechanism, such as a…

      To feed (a sewing machine or otherwise a projecting or exposing mechanism, such as a projector, a camera, etc.) with film.

    19. To pass (a film or tape) through a projector, recorder, etc. so as to correct its path.

    20. Of boiling syrup

      Of boiling syrup: To form a threadlike stream when poured from a spoon.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at thread. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01thread02glass03crystal04ice05carbon06paper07fibres08fibre

A definitional loop anchored at thread. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at thread

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA