Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Thread

Thread (thrĕd), n. [OE. threed, þred, AS. þrǣd; akin to D. draad, G. draht wire, thread, OHG. drāt, Icel. þrāðr a thread, Sw. tråd, Dan. traad, and AS. þrāwan to twist. See Throw, and cf. Third.] 1. A very small twist of flax, wool, cotton, silk, or other fibrous substance, drawn out to considerable length; a compound cord consisting of two or more single yarns doubled, or joined together, and twisted.

2. A filament, as of a flower, or of any fibrous substance, as of bark; also, a line of gold or silver.

3. The prominent part of the spiral of a screw or nut; the rib. See Screw, n., 1.

4. Fig.: Something continued in a long course or tenor; a,s the thread of life, or of a discourse. Bp. Burnet.

5. Fig.: Composition; quality; fineness. [Obs.]

A neat courtier, Of a most elegant thread. B. Jonson.

Air thread, the fine white filaments which are seen floating in the air in summer, the production of spiders; gossamer. — Thread and thrum, the good and bad together. [Obs.] Shak. — Thread cell (Zoöl.), a lasso cell. See under Lasso. — Thread herring (Zoöl.), the gizzard shad. See under Gizzard. — Thread lace, lace made of linen thread. — Thread needle, a game in which children stand in a row, joining hands, and in which the outer one, still holding his neighbor, runs between the others; — called also thread the needle.

Thread, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Threaded; p. pr. & vb. n. Threading.] 1. To pass a thread through the eye of; as, to thread a needle.

2. To pass or pierce through as a narrow way; also, to effect or make, as one's way, through or between obstacles; to thrid.

Heavy trading ships . . . threading the Bosphorus. Mitford.

They would not thread the gates. Shak.

3. To form a thread, or spiral rib, on or in; as, to thread a screw or nut.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.