thread

(thrĕd)

a. Fine cord of a fibrous material, such as cotton or flax, made of two or more filaments twisted together and used in needlework and the weaving of cloth.

b. A piece of such cord.

a. A thin strand, cord, or filament of natural or manufactured material.

b. Something that suggests the fineness or thinness of such a strand, cord, or filament: a thread of smoke.

c. Something that suggests the continuousness of such a strand, cord, or filament: lost the thread of his argument.

3. A helical or spiral ridge on a screw, nut, or bolt.

4. Computers

a. A portion of a program that can run independently of and concurrently with other portions of the program.

b. A set of posts on a newsgroup, composed of an initial post about a topic and all responses to it.

5. threads Slang Clothes.

v. thread·ed, thread·ing, threads

v.tr.

a. To pass one end of a thread through the eye of (a needle, for example).

b. To pass (something) through in the manner of a thread: thread the wire through the opening.

c. To pass a tape or film into or through (a device): thread a film projector.

d. To pass (a tape or film) into or through a device.

2. To connect by running a thread through; string: thread beads.

3. Sports To throw or send (a pass) though a heavily defended area to a teammate.

a. To make one's way cautiously through: threading dark alleys.

b. To make (one's way) cautiously through something.

5. To occur here and there throughout; pervade: "More than 90 geologic faults thread the Los Angeles area" (Science News).

6. To machine a thread on (a screw, nut, or bolt).

7. To remove (body hair) by using a looped thread that has been wound tightly in the middle.

v.intr.

1. To make one's way cautiously: threaded through the shoals and sandbars.

2. To proceed by a winding course.

3. To form a thread when dropped from a spoon, as boiling sugar syrup.

[Middle English, from Old English thrǣd; see terə- in Indo-European roots.]

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.

threads

(θrɛdz)

pl n

(Clothing & Fashion) a slang word for clothes

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

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

threads - informal terms for clothing

duds, togs

article of clothing, clothing, habiliment, wearable, vesture, wear - a covering designed to be worn on a person's body

plural, plural form - the form of a word that is used to denote more than one

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

The emperor lays on the table three fine silken threads of six inches long; one is blue, the other red, and the third green.

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A spider which was about three-tenths of an inch in length, and which in its general appearance resembled a Citigrade (therefore quite different from the gossamer), while standing on the summit of a post, darted forth four or five threads from its spinners.

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As I kept passing and repassing the filling or woof of marline between the long yarns of the warp, using my own hand for the shuttle, and as Queequeg, standing sideways, ever and anon slid his heavy oaken sword between the threads, and idly looking off upon the water, carelessly and unthinkingly drove home every yarn: I say so strange a dreaminess did there then reign all over the ship and all over the sea, only broken by the intermitting dull sound of the sword, that it seemed as if this were the Loom of Time, and I myself were a shuttle mechanically weaving and weaving away at the Fates.

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THAT uses the individual for its own ends, trampling upon him if he thwarts it, rewarding him with medals, pensions, honours, when he serves it faithfully; THIS, strong only in his independence, threads his way through the state, for convenience' sake, paying in money or service for certain benefits, but with no sense of obligation; and, indifferent to the rewards, asks only to be left alone.

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As such a weary ship in the calmest cove, so do I also now repose, nigh to the earth, faithful, trusting, waiting, bound to it with the lightest threads.

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A nearer look revealed black threads tied to the arm and fingers, the ends of threads disappearing through holes bored in the back of the case.

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Look where we may, the dark threads and the light cross each other perpetually in the texture of human life.

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First of all I tried to attach the button to the ragged threads, and smiled each time that it broke away from them, and smiled again.

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They put it all in their own pockets, and there came no threads on the loom, but they went on as they had done before, working at the empty loom.

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As he had a compassionate heart he pulled out his needle and thread, and sewed her together.

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I put down the needle and thread, and let on to be interested -- and I was, too -- and says:

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'I have a needle, Sir, in my basket, and thread too.

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