thread
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /θɹɛd/
ipa: [θɾ̪̊ɛd]
rhymes: -ɛd
Forms: form: threads
form: thred
form: thrid
form: threed
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.
Senses: examples: text: Woolen threads were an occult means, according to the Roman poet Horace, of depriving a person of virility.
ref: 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 234:
synonyms: string
glosses: A cord formed by spinning or twisting together textile fibers or filaments into one or more continuous strands, typically used in needlework.
topics: business
manufacturing
textiles
weaving
glosses: A piece of yarn, especially said of warps and wefts in a woven fabric.
examples: text: the threads of a spiderweb
text: 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.
ref: 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./1/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
glosses: Any of various natural (as spiderweb, etc.) or manufactured filaments (as glass, plastic, metal, etc.).
examples: text: a thread of water
glosses: A slender stream of water.
glosses: The line midway between the banks of a stream.
topics: engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A screw thread.
glosses: The continuing course of life; thread of life.
examples: text: I’ve lost the thread of what you’re saying.
text: I was pondering these things, when an incident, and a somewhat unexpected one, broke the thread of my musings.
ref: 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter XVIII:
text: ‘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.’
ref: 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Chapter 21:
glosses: An ordered course, that which connects the successive points in a discourse.
A line of reasoning, sequence of ideas, or train of thought.
examples: text: All of these essays have a common thread.
glosses: An ordered course, that which connects the successive points in a discourse.
A continuing theme that modifies the whole discourse.
synonyms: topic
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A unit of execution, lighter in weight than a process, usually sharing memory and other resources with other threads executing concurrently.
glosses: 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.
glosses: A sequence of connections.
examples: text: a life hanging by a thread
glosses: A precarious condition; something that which offers no real or otherwise perceived security.
examples: text: A neat courtier, / Of a most elegant thread.
ref: 1632 (first performance), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “The Magnetick Lady: Or, Humors Reconcil’d. A Comedy […]”, in The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The Second Volume. […] (Second Folio), London: […] Richard Meighen, published 1640, →OCLC:
glosses: The degree of fineness; quality; nature.
Hyponyms: quadruple thread
screw thread
Derived terms: Abalakov thread
brahminical thread
cross-thread
golden thread
green thread
hang by a thread
hyperthreaded
life thread
lose the thread
needle-and-thread grass
nun's thread
Pagenstecher thread
pick up the threads
pick up the threads of
sister's thread
threadbare
thread bug
thread count
threader
thread lace
thread-legged bug
thread-locking fluid
thread mode
thread necromancy
thread needle
thread of life
thread of thought
thread-paper
thread pool
threadsafe
thread-safe
thread snake
thready