thread 
twisted filament of a fibrous substance, as cot- 
ton, flax, silk, or wool, spun out to considerable 
length. In a specific sense, thread is a compound cord 
consisting of two or more yarns firmly united together by 
twisting. The twisting together of the different strands 
or yarns txj form a thread is effected by a thread-frame, or 
doubling-arid- twisting mill, which accomplishes the pur- 
pose by the action of bobbins and fliers. Thread is used in 
some species of weaving, but its principal use is for sewing. 
The word is used especially for linen, as distinguished from 
sewing-silk and sewing-cotton, and as seen in the phrases 
thread lace and thread glove ; but this distinction is not 
original, and is not always maintained. Compare cuts un- 
der spinning-wheel and spinning-jenny. 
That riche ring ful redily with a red silk threde 
The quen bond als bliue a-boute the wolwes necke. 
William of Palerne (E. E. T. S.), 1. 4430. 
Also, cosyn, I pray you to sende me sum Norfoke threde to 
do a boute my nekke to ryde with. Paston Letters, I. 343. 
To a choice Grace to spin He put it out, 
That its fine thread might answer her neat hand. 
J. Beaumont, Psyche, iii. 24. 
2. A fine filament or thread-like body of any 
kind: as, a thread of spun glass; a thread of 
corn-silk. 
Sustaining a threed of Copper, reaching from one to an- 
other, on which are fastened many burning Lampes. 
Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 288. 
3. The prominent spiral part of a screw. See 
cuts under screw and screw-thread. 4. In min- 
ing, a thin seam, vein, or fissure filled with ore. 
5. 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. 6. pi. In conch., the bys- 
sus. 7. A yarn-measure, the circumference 
of a reel, containing 1|, 2, 2, or 3 yards. 8. 
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. 
I would not live over my hours past, or begin again the 
thread of my days. Sir T. Browne, Religio Medici, i. 42. 
Wherefore to resume the thread of our course, we were 
now in sight of the Volcan, being by estimation 7 or 8 
leagues from the shoar. Dampier, Voyages, I. 120. 
If, after a pause, the grave companion resumes his thread 
in the following manner, "Well, but to go on with my 
story," new interruptions come from the left and the right, 
till he is forced to give over. 
Svnft, Polite Conversation, Int. 
9. A clue. 
And, scorning of the loyall virgins Thred, 
Haue them and others in this Maze mis-led. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, i. 1. 
10f. Distinguishing property; quality; degree 
of fineness. 
A neat courtier, 
Of a most elegant thread. 
S. Jonson, Magnetick Lady, i. 1. 
11. The thread of life. See phrase below. 
Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief 
Shore his old thread in twain. 
Shak., Othello, v. 2. 206. 
He sees at one view the whole thread of my existence. 
Addison, Spectator, No. 7. 
Adam's needle and thread. See Adam. Gold thread. 
(a) A string formed by covering a thread, usually of yellow 
silk, with thin gold wire wound spirally around it. See 
wire, (b) A thin strip of gilded paper often used in Ori- 
ental brocaded stuffs, (c) Erroneously, gold wire, (d) 
See goldthread. Lisle thread, a fine hard-twisted linen 
thread, originally made at Lille (Lisle), in France, but now 
also made in Great Britain. It is used especially in the 
manufacture of stockings, gloves, etc, The thread of 
life, the imaginary thread spun and cut by the Fates : 
emblematic of the course and termination of one's exis- 
tence. See def. 11. Thread and needle. Same as 
thread-needle. Thread and thrum, figuratively, all; 
the good and the bad together. 
Fates, come, come ; 
Cut thread and thrum. 
Shak., M. N. D., v. 1. 291. 
Thread lace. See lace. Thread of the river, thread 
Of the Stream, the middle of the main current, which 
may be on one side or the other of the middle of the wate-. 
Henry Austin, Farm Law, p. 135. Three threads. See 
three. 
thread (thred), v. t. [Early mod. E. also thred; 
also threed, whence, with shortened vowel, thrid; 
< ME. threden; < thread, .] 1. To pass a thread 
through the eye or aperture of, as a needle. 
A sylver nedyl forth I drowe 
Out of an aguyler queynt ynowe, 
And gan this nedyl threde anone. 
Horn, of (he Rote, 1. 99. 
2. To string on a thread. 
Then they [beads] are threaded by children, tied in bun- 
dles, and exported to the ends of the earth. 
Harper's Mag., LXXIX. 262. 
3. To pass through with the carefulness and 
precision of one who is threading a needle, im- 
plying narrowness or intricacy in that which is 
passed through. 
6306 
They would not thread the gates. 
Shak., Cor., iii. 1. 124. 
He began to thread 
All courts and passages, where silence dead, 
Boused by his whispering footsteps, mnrmur'd faint. 
Keati, Endymion, ii. 
Such lived not in the past alone, 
But thread to-day the unheeding street 
Lowell, All-Saints. 
4. To form a spiral projection on or a spiral 
groove in ; furnish with a thread, as a screw : 
as, to thread a bolt. 
thread-animalcule (thred'an-i-mal"kul), n. A 
vibrio ; any member of the Vibrionidx. 
threadbare (thred'bar), a. [Early mod. E. also 
thrcdbare, tlircedebare ; < ME. thredbare, threed- 
bare, thredebare; < thread + 6rel.] 1. Hav- 
ing the thread bare ; worn so that the nap is 
lost and the thread is visible, either wholly or in 
certain parts : said of a piece of textile fabric, 
as in a garment, or of the garment itself. 
Lo, thus by smelling and threedbare array, 
If that men list, this folk they knowe may. 
Chaucer, Prol. to Canon's Yeoman's Tale, L 337. 
And he com in the semblaunce of an olde man, and 
hadde on a russet cote torne and all thredebare. 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.), ii. 261. 
A Jew never wears his cap threadbare with putting it 
off. Dekker, Gull's Hornbook, p 63. 
A suit of threadbare black, with darned cotton stockings 
of the same colour, and shoes to answer. 
Dickens, Oliver Twist, iv. 
2. Wearing threadbare clothes; shabby; seedy. 
A threadbare rascal, a beggar. 
B. Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, iii. 3. 
3. Well-worn ; much used ; hence, hackneyed ; 
trite : as, a threadbare jest. 
Yelverton is a good thredbare trend for yow and for odyr 
in thys contre, as it is told me. Paston Letters, II. 83. 
Where have my busy eyes not pry'd? O where, 
Of whom, hath not my threadbare tongue demanded? 
Quarles, Emblems, iv. 11. 
You could not bring in that thredbare Flourish, of our 
being more fierce than our own Mastiffs, . . . without 
some such Introduction. Milton, Aus. to Salmasius. 
threadbareness (thred'bar-nes), . The state 
of being threadbare. H. Mackenzie. 
thread-carrier (thred'kar'i-er), n. In a knit- 
ting-machine, a hook or eyelet on the carriage 
through which the yarn is passed. E. H. Knigh t. 
thread-cell (thred'sel), . 1. One of the lit- 
tle bodies or cavities of a coelenterate, as a 
jellyfish or sea-nettle, containing a coiled elas- 
tic thread that springs out with stinging effect 
when the creature is irritated; an urticating- 
organ; a nematocyst; a lasso-cell; a cnida. 
Thread-cells are highly characteristic of the coDlenterates, 
and some similar or analogous organs are found in certain 
infusorians. See cuts under cnida and neinatocyst, and 
compare trichocyst. 
2. An occasional name of a seed-animalcule or 
spermatozoon. Haeckel. 
thread-cutter (thred'kufer), n. 1. A small 
blade fixed to a sewing-machine, to a spool- 
holder, or to a thimble, etc., as a convenience 
for cutting sewing-threads. 2. A thread-cut- 
ting machine for bolts; a screw-thread cutter. 
See cut under screw-stock. E. H. Knight. 
threaded (thred'ed), p. a. Provided with a 
thread. 
From the bastion'd walls, 
Like threaded spiders, one by one we dropt. 
Tennyson, Princess, i. 
threadent (thred'n), a. [Early mod. E. also 
"thredden, threadden; < thread -r- -en 2 .] Woven 
of threads ; textile. Also thridden. 
I went on shoare my selfe, and gaue euery of them a 
threadden point, and brought one of them aboord of me. 
Hakluyt's Voyages, III. 31. 
Behold the threaden sails, 
Borne with the invisible and creeping wind. 
Shak., Hen. V., iii., Prol., 1. 10. 
threader (thred'er), n. [< thread + -erl.] One 
who or that which threads; specifically, a con- 
trivance for threading needles. See needle- 
threader. 
thread-feather (thred 'feTH-'er), n. A filo- 
plume. Seefeatiier. 
thread-fin (thred'fin), n. Any fish of the genus 
Polynemus: so called from the long pectoral 
filaments. See cut under Polynemus. 
thread-finisher (thred'fin"ish-er), n. A ma- 
chine in which linen or cotton thread is treated 
to remove the fluffy fibers that cling to new 
thread, to fasten down the loose fibers, and to 
polish the surface. 
thread-fish (thred'fish), M. 1. The cordonnier 
or cobbler-fish, Blepharis crinitus. 2. The cut- 
las-fish. See cut under Trichiunts. 
thread-flower (thred'flou"er), n. A plant of the 
genus Nematanthus, of the Gesneracese, which 
thread-tailed 
consists of 3 or 4 Brazilian climbing or epi- 
phytic shrubs with large crimson (lowers pen- 
dent on long peduncles, to which this name, as 
also that of the genvis, alludes Crimson thread- 
flower. See Poinciana. 
threadfoot (thred'fut), . An aquatic plant, 
I'odostemon ceratophyllus. 
thread-frame (thred'frftm), . In spinning, a 
machine combining yarns by doubling and 
twisting them, to make thread. 
thread-gage (thred'gaj), n. A gage for deter- 
Thread-gages. 
mining the number of threads to the inch on 
screws and taps. E. H. Knight. 
thread-guide (thred'gid), . In a sewing-ma- 
chine, a device, as a loop or an eye, for guiding 
the thread when it is necessary to change the 
direction at any point between the spool and 
the eye of the needle. See cuts under sewing- 
machine. E. If. Knigh t. 
thread-herring (thred 'her "ing), n. 1. The 
mud-shad or gizzard-shad, Dorosoma cepedia- 
nnm. See cut under gizzard-shad. [Local, U.S.] 
2. The fish Opisthonema thrissa of the Atlan- 
tic coast of North America, chiefly southward. 
threadiness (thred'i-nes), n. Thready charac- 
ter or condition. Imp. Diet. 
thread-leaved (thred'levd), n. Having filiform 
leaves Thread-leaved sundew. See sundew. 
thread-mark (thred'mark), . A delicate fiber, 
usually of silk and of strong color, put in some 
kinds of paper made for use as paper money, as 
a safeguard against counterfeiting by means of 
thread-moss (thred'mos), n. A moss of the 
genus Bryum : so called from the slender seta 
which bears the capsule. 
thread-needle, thread-the-needle (thred'ne*- 
dl, thred'THe-ne'dl), n. [< thread, v. (+ the^), 
-f obj. needle.] A game in which children, espe- 
cially girls, stand in a row holding hands, and 
the outer one, still holding the one next, runs 
between the others under their uplifted hands, 
and is followed by the rest in turn. Also called 
thread and needle. 
thread-oiler (thred'oi'ler), n. An oil-cup or 
-holder screwed to the spool-wire of a sewing- 
machine, for oiling the thread, to cause it to 
pass more readily through leather or other 
thick, heavy material. E. H. Knight. 
thread-paper (thred'pa"per), n. 1. A strip of 
thin soft paper prepared for wrapping up a 
skein of thread, which is laid at length and 
rolled up in a generally cylindrical form. 
She has a lap-dog that eats out of gold ; she feeds her 
parrot with small pearls ; and all her thread-papers are 
made of bank-notes. Sheridan, The Rivals, i. 1. 
2. A variety of paper used for such strips. 
thread-plant (thred'plant), n. A plant afford- 
ing a fiber suitable for textile use ; a fiber-plant. 
thread-shaped (thred'shapt), a. In bot. and 
zool., slender, like a thread, as the filaments of 
Thread-tailed Swallow (Uro- 
many plants and ani- 
mals; filamentous; fili- 
form; filar. 
thread-tailed (thred'- 
tald), a. Havingthready 
or filamentous tail-fea- 
