Wiktionary

thread

See also:Thread,and/thread

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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FromMiddle Englishthred,þred,threed,fromOld Englishþrǣd,fromProto-Germanic*þrēduz,fromProto-Indo-European*treh₁-tu-s,from*terh₁-(“rub, twist”).Cognate withSaterland FrisianTräid(“thread, wire”),West Frisiantried,Dutchdraad,GermanDraht,Norwegian, Danish andSwedishtråd,andIcelandicþráður.Non-Germanic cognates includeAlbaniandredh(“twist, turn”).More atthrow.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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thread(pluralthreads)

  1. A long, thin and flexible form of material, generally with a round cross-section, used insewing,weavingor in the construction ofstring.
    • 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 likethreadsof gossamer silver passing across the light of the arc-lamps.
  2. A continued theme or idea.
    Synonym:topic
    All of these essays have a commonthread.
    I’ve lost thethreadof what you’re saying.
  3. (engineering)Ascrew thread.
  4. A sequence of connections.
    • 1847,Charlotte Brontë,Jane Eyre,Chapter XVIII:
      I was pondering these things, when an incident, and a somewhat unexpected one, broke thethreadof 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 thethreadof his thought.’
  5. The linemidwaybetween thebanksof astream.
  6. (computing)A unit of execution, lighter in weight than aprocess,usually sharing memory and other resources with other threads executing concurrently.
  8. (Internet)A series of messages, generally grouped bysubject,in which all messages except the first are replies to previous messages in the thread.
  9. Afilament,as of aflower,or of anyfibroussubstance, as ofbark.
  10. (figurative)Composition;quality;fineness.

Hyponyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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thread(third-person singular simple presentthreads,present participlethreading,simple pastthreadedor(archaic)thrid,past participlethreadedor(archaic)thridden)

  1. (transitive)To put thread through.
    threada needle
  2. (transitive)To pass (through a narrow constriction or around a series of obstacles).
    I think I canthreadmy way through here, but it’s going to be tight.
    • 1950April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, inRailway Magazine,page266:
      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 theythreadbackwards and forwards about six times.
    • 1961February, D. Bertram, “The lines to Wetherby and their traffic”, inTrains Illustrated,page101:
      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 linethreadsa deep tree-lined gorge.
    • 2013October 19, Ben Smith,BBC Sport:
      Picking the ball up in his own half, Januzajthreadeda 40-yard pass into the path of Rooney to slice Southampton open in the blink of an eye.
  3. Toscrewon; to fit thethreadsof a nut on a bolt.
  4. (transitive)Toremovethe hair using a thread.
    How tothreadyour eyebrows and trim them

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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BorrowedfromEnglishthread.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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threadm(pluralthreads)

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

Synonyms

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Italian

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Etymology

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BorrowedfromEnglishthread.

Noun

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threadm(invariable)

  1. (Internet)thread(series of messages)

Portuguese

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowingfromEnglishthread.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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threadf(pluralthreads)

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