ten·dril

(tĕn′drəl)

1. A twisting, slender structure by which a plant, such as a grape or cucumber, twines around and often climbs an object or another plant.

2. Something, such as a ringlet of hair, that is long, slender, and curling.

[French tendrillon, from Old French, diminutive of tendron, young shoot, from tendre, tender; see tender¹.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

tendril

(ˈtɛndrɪl)

1. (Botany) a specialized threadlike part of a leaf or stem that attaches climbing plants to a support by twining or adhering

2. something resembling a tendril, such as a wisp of hair

[C16: perhaps from Old French tendron tendril (confused with Old French tendron bud), from Medieval Latin tendō tendon]

ˈtendrillar, ˈtendrilous adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ten•dril

(ˈtɛn drɪl)

n.

a threadlike, leafless organ of climbing plants, often growing in spiral form, which attaches itself to or twines round some other body, so as to support the plant.

[1530–40; earlier tendrel, alter. of Middle English tendren, tendron < Middle French tendron sprout, cartilage, probably alter., by suffix substitution, of tendrum < Vulgar Latin *tenerūmen = Latin tener tender¹ + -ūmen n. suffix]

ten′dril•ous, adj.

ten·dril

(tĕn′drəl)

A slender, coiling plant part, often a modified leaf or leaf part, that helps support the stem of climbing plants by clinging to or winding around an object. Peas, squash, and grapes produce tendrils.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

tendril - slender stem-like structure by which some twining plants attach themselves to an object for support

plant part, plant structure - any part of a plant or fungus

cirrhus, cirrus - usually coiled

tendril

noun

A young stemlike growth arising from a plant:

bine, offshoot, runner, shoot, sprig, sprout.

Translations

zarcillo

viticcio

tendril

[ˈtendrɪl] N → zarcillo m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

tendril

[ˈtɛndrəl] n

[hair] → mèche f

(BOTANY) [plant, vine] → vrille f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

tendril

n → Ranke f; (of hair) → Ringellocke f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

tendril

[ˈtɛndrɪl] n → viticcio

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

His stomach, less resigned than he was, rebelled, and he was obliged to fasten a tendril of wild-vine tightly about his waist.

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A red chaperon or cap, with long hanging cornette, sat daintily on the back of his black-curled head, while his gold-hued shoes were twisted up a la poulaine , as though the toes were shooting forth a tendril which might hope in time to entwine itself around his massive leg.

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A Goat, passing by, nibbled its young tendrils and its leaves.

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There were other trees in the garden, and one of the things which made the place look strangest and loveliest was that climbing roses had run all over them and swung down long tendrils which made light swaying curtains, and here and there they had caught at each other or at a far-reaching branch and had crept from one tree to another and made lovely bridges of themselves.

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the wood was green as mosses of the icy Glen; the trees stood high and haughty, feeling their living sap; the industrious earth beneath was as a weaver's loom, with a gorgeous carpet on it, whereof the ground-vine tendrils formed the warp and woof, and the living flowers the figures.

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This room was carpeted, and therein was a piano, a couch, a chiffonniere--above all, it contained a lofty window with a crimson curtain, which, being undrawn, afforded another glimpse of the garden, through the large, clear panes, round which some leaves of ivy, some tendrils of vine were trained

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She had plunged the breakfast dishes into a tin dish-pan and was bending above it with her slim arms bared to the elbow, the steam from the hot water beading her forehead and tightening her rough hair into little brown rings like the tendrils on the traveller's joy.

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The light drew them as if they were plants; the chemistry of the life that composed them demanded the light as a necessity of being; and their little puppet-bodies crawled blindly and chemically, like the tendrils of a vine.

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At last the bollworm had attacked the cotton--the poison ivy was reaching out its tendrils to entwine the summer boarder--the millionaire lumberman, thinly disguised as the Alaskan miner, was about to engulf our Milly and upset Nature's adjustment.

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All that was noticeable was the little wilful tendrils of her curly hair that would always break free about her neck and temples.

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And the archers began to shoot; and he who shot not through the garland without disturbing its leaves and tendrils was fain to submit to a good sound buffet from Little John.

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His long, dark hair, softly powdered here and there with silver tendrils, fell elegantly over his shoulders in wavy curls; his voice was still youthful, as if belonging to a Hercules of twenty-five, and his magnificent teeth, which he had preserved white and sound, gave an indescribable charm to his smile.

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