Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun 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.
  • noun A piece of such cord.
  • noun A thin strand, cord, or filament of natural or manufactured material.
  • noun Something that suggests the fineness or thinness of such a strand, cord, or filament.
  • noun Something that suggests the continuousness of such a strand, cord, or filament.
  • noun A helical or spiral ridge on a screw, nut, or bolt.
  • noun A portion of a program that can run independently of and concurrently with other portions of the program.
  • noun A set of posts on a newsgroup, composed of an initial post about a topic and all responses to it.
  • noun Slang Clothes.
  • intransitive verb To pass one end of a thread through the eye of (a needle, for example).
  • intransitive verb To pass (something) through in the manner of a thread.
  • intransitive verb To pass a tape or film into or through (a device).
  • intransitive verb To pass (a tape or film) into or through a device.
  • intransitive verb To connect by running a thread through; string.
  • intransitive verb Sports To throw or send (a pass) though a heavily defended area to a teammate.
  • intransitive verb To make one's way cautiously through.
  • intransitive verb To make (one's way) cautiously through something.
  • intransitive verb To occur here and there throughout; pervade.
  • intransitive verb To machine a thread on (a screw, nut, or bolt).
  • intransitive verb To remove (body hair) by using a looped thread that has been wound tightly in the middle.
  • intransitive verb To make one's way cautiously.
  • intransitive verb To proceed by a winding course.
  • intransitive verb To form a thread when dropped from a spoon, as boiling sugar syrup.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A twisted filament of a fibrous substance, as cotton, flax, silk, or wool, spun out to considerable length.
  • noun A fine filament or thread-like body of any kind: as, a thread of spun glass; a thread of com-silk.
  • noun The prominent spiral part of a screw. See cuts under screw and screw-thread.
  • noun In mining, a thin seam, vein, or fissure filled with ore.
  • noun A very slender line applied on a surface: thus, in decorative art, thin and minute lines are so called to distinguish them from bands of color, which, though narrow, have a more appreciable width.
  • noun plural In conchology, the byssus.
  • noun A yarn-measure, the circumference of a reel, containing 1½, 2, 2½, or 3 yards.
  • noun That which runs through the whole course of something and connects its successive parts; hence, proper course or sequence; the main idea, thought, or purpose which runs through something: as, the thread of a discourse or story.
  • noun A clue.
  • noun Distinguishing property; quality; degree of fineness.
  • noun The thread of life. See phrase below.
  • noun A thin strip of gilded paper often used in Oriental brocaded stuffs.
  • noun Erroneously, gold wire.
  • noun See goldthread.
  • To pass a thread through the eye or aperture of, as a needle.
  • To string on a thread.
  • To pass through with the carefulness and precision of one who is threading a needle, implying narrowness or intricacy in that which is passed through.
  • To form a spiral projection on or a spiral groove in; furnish with a thread, as a screw: as, to thread a bolt.
  • In electricity, to pass through and link with, as the lines of force of the magnetic S.—85 field of a D' Arsonval galvanometer pass through the suspended coil of the instrument.
  • noun plural A defect in glass articles: same as string, 15.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To pass a thread through the eye of.
  • transitive verb To pass or pierce through as a narrow way; also, to effect or make, as one's way, through or between obstacles; to thrid.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English threed, þred, from Old English þrǽd, ðrǽd, from Proto-Germanic *þrēduz, from Proto-Indo-European *treh₁-tu-, from *terh₁- (“rub, twist”). Near cognates include Dutch draad German Draht, Icelandic þráður and Norwegian, Danish and Swedish tråd. Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian dredh ("twist, turn").

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Examples

  • A hook must be fixed in some convenient place to make the waxends on, or, as they are called in the trade, "threads," which term it will be as well to call them by here; thus a _four-cord thread_ means a thread or waxend containing four strands of hemp, a six-cord contains six strands, and so on.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 561, October 2, 1886 Various

  • The housewife's term for a ball of thread wound upon a central body, is a _bottom of thread_.

    Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies Samuel Johnson 1746

  • "Kill this thread, kill buffer, and view next", '&' def kill_and_next; kill_and_then: next end def kill_and_then op dispatch op do multi_kill [@thread] end end

    Planet Debian marcotmarcot 2010

  • The newscasters thread was created in 2006, meaning it is a 3 years old thread~

    www.hardwarezone.com.sg 2009

  • The newscasters thread was created in 2006, meaning it is a 3 years old thread~

    www.hardwarezone.com.sg 2009

  • The newscasters thread was created in 2006, meaning it is a 3 years old thread~

    www.hardwarezone.com.sg 2009

  • The newscasters thread was created in 2006, meaning it is a 3 years old thread~

    www.hardwarezone.com.sg 2009

  • FileMove, % dll%, % thread% lib: = DllCall ( "LoadLibrary", "str", thread)

    AutoHotkey Community 2009

  • The newscasters thread was created in 2006, meaning it is a 3 years old thread~

    www.hardwarezone.com.sg 2009

  • The newscasters thread was created in 2006, meaning it is a 3 years old thread~

    www.hardwarezone.com.sg 2009

Comments

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  • Captured at Yorktown, "49 pounds thread." In this usage "pounds" was the weight rather than the monetary amount.

    October 29, 2007