Thread

Thread, thred, n. a very thin line of any substance twisted and drawn out: a filament of any fibrous substance: a fine line of yarn: anything resembling a thread: the prominent spiral part of a screw: something continued in long course: the uniform tenor of a discourse.—v.t. to pass a thread through the eye of (as a needle): to pass or pierce through, as a narrow way: to furnish with a thread.—adj. Thread′bare, worn to the bare thread: having the nap worn off: hackneyed: used till its novelty or interest is gone.—n. Thread′bareness.—adj. Thread′en (Shak.), made of thread.—ns. Thread′er; Thread′iness, the state of being thread-like or slender: the quality of containing threads; Thread′-lace, lace made of linen thread; Thread′-pā′per, a piece of thin soft paper for wrapping up a skein of thread.—n.pl. Thread′-worms, a popular name for Nematoda, a class of more or less thread-like worms, many parasitic, others free-living.—adj. Thread′y, like thread: slender: containing, or consisting of, thread.—Thread and thrum, all, the good and bad together; Thread of life, the thread imagined to be spun and cut by the Fates.—Lisle thread, a fine hard-twisted linen thread originally made at Lille in France. [A.S. thrǽd—thráwan, to wind, to twist; Ger. drehen.]