twine
/twʌɪn
/noun [mass noun]
Strong thread or string consisting of two or more strands of hemp or cotton twisted together.An empty plastic 2 litre bottle is tied to a rock, or bag of stones with strong twine or string....
- Her works often consist of accumulations of old-fashioned, everyday objects that have been meticulously wrapped in white twine or cotton thread.
- And all I had to use for a bowstring was some cotton twine.
Synonyms
string, cord, strong thread, yarn
verb
1Wind or cause to wind round something: [no object]: the plant will twine round its support [with object]: she twined her arms round his neck...
- He twined his fingers round its rein, as it nuzzled his hands.
- For the fabrication of the ring in gold, the craftsman first converts gold into thin wires and then winds and twines them to form the patterns on a circular base.
- ‘I better get back,’ Basil said, twining the ribbon through his fingers.
Synonyms
wind, entwine;
wrap, lace, wreathe
1.1 [with object] Interlace: a spray of jasmine was twined in her hair...
- The strands are the sections of the hair that are twined together to form a braid.
- I didn't resist, both of us crushing the leaf until fragments fell and were scattered by the wind, her fingers twined in mine.
- Sometimes one yearns for the days when crime and showbiz were not as tightly twined as they are now.
Synonyms
entwine itself, coil, loop, twist, spiral, curl, snake
weave, interweave, interlace, intertwine, plait, braid, twist
Derivatives
twiner
- Black-eyed Susan vine is a tender twiner with spring-frost yellow, orange or white blooms with a contrasting eye.
- Another Australian twiner, this one has very lovely large pink trumpet flowers with a darker centre.
- This small twiner will grow thicker and harder in due course and curl round the tree-stem.
Origin
Old English twīn 'thread, linen', from the Germanic base of twi- 'two'; related to Dutch twijn.
tweed from mid 19th century:
Tweed was originally produced in Scotland, where it was called tweel, a Scots form of twill (Middle English), a word based on two and like twine (Old English) indicating two-ply yarn. Around 1830 a cloth merchant misread this as tweed, a mistake perpetuated by association with the River Tweed, part of which forms the border between England and Scotland. Tweed is traditionally worn by the English country gentry, and tweedy has been used since the early 20th century to suggest a robust, traditional kind of Englishness.
Rhymes
- worldling
- world literature
- world love
- worldly
- worldly goods (or possessions or wealth)
- worldly-minded
- worldly-mindedness
- worldly wisdom
- worldly-wise
- worldly wiseman
- World Meteorological Organization
- world model
- world music
- world order
- world phone
- world point
- world-political
- world politician
- world politics
- world power
- world-ranked
- world-ranking
- world-renowned
- world revolution
- worlds apart