thread

See also: Thread and /thread

English

Alternative forms

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.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /θɹɛd/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛd
  • Hyphenation: thread

Noun

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

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

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

Translations

See also

References

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English thread.

Pronunciation

Noun

thread m (plural threads)

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

Synonyms

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English thread.

Noun

thread m (invariable)

  1. (Internet) thread (series of messages)

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English thread.

Pronunciation

  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈtɾɛ.d͡ʒi/
  • (Portugal) IPA(key): /ˈtɾɛ.di/ [ˈtɾɛ.ði]

  • Rhymes: -ɛdʒi, -ɛdi

Noun

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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