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thread
thread and thrum
A combination of good and bad. "Thrum" are the bits of thread left on the loom after a finished item has been removed. I know you're disappointed with your minor role in the play, but at least you get to act—you have to accept the thread and thrum.
thread the needle
1. To insert thread through the eye of a needle. You'll need to thread the needle before you can start sewing.
2. To pass something through a narrow space between two things. The quarterback really threaded the needle with that pass between two defenders.
3. A children's game in which the participants stand in a line and hold hands. The person at the end of the line then ducks under the others' linked arms, pulling the rest of the line along with him or her. Come on, we're playing thread the needle!
common thread (to all this)
Fig. a similar idea or pattern to a series of events. All of these incidents are related. There is a common thread to all this.
hang by a hair
and hang by a thread 1. Lit. to hang by something very thin, such as a thread or a hair. The tiniest part of the mobile hung by a thread, the rest are on plastic cords.
2. and hang on by a hair; hang on by a thread Fig. to depend on something very insubstantial; to hang in the balance. Your whole argument is hanging by a thread. John isn't failing geometry, but his passing grade is just hanging by a hair.
thread one's way through something
Fig. to make a path for oneself through a crowded area; to make one's way carefully through a crowded area. The spy threaded his way through the crowd. The bicyclists threaded their way through the cars stopped in traffic.
thread through something
Fig. to travel through a crowded area; to move carefully through an area where there are many obstacles. The spy threaded through the crowd at the palace. The joggers threaded through the shoppers on the sidewalks.
hang by a thread
to be in danger of having something unlucky or bad happen Roberta was told that her job hung by a thread, and she needed to be more serious about it. For several days after the accident, his life hung by a thread.
lose the thread (of something)
to not be able to understand what someone is saying because you are not giving it all your attention Jeb wasn't listening at all and lost the thread of what his father was saying.
hang by a thread
if something hangs by a thread, it is likely to fail in the near future Peace and democracy hang by a thread in this troubled country.
lose the thread
to stop understanding something someone says or something you are reading because it is too complicated or because you cannot concentrate When he started quoting Martin Luther King, I completely lost the thread of his argument.
pick up the threads of something
to try to start something again, especially after problems prevented you from continuing it In '97, I came out of prison and tried to pick up the threads of my life.
hang by a thread
Also, hang by a hair. Be in a risky or unstable situation, as in His promotion was hanging by a thread, or With the lead actor sick, the success of our play hung by a hair. This expression, already proverbial in the early 1500s, alludes to Damocles, who vexed King Dionysius with constant flattery. The king invited him to a banquet where Damocles found himself seated under a naked sword suspended by a single hair, symbolizing his insecure position at the court.
lose the thread
Cease to follow the sense of what is said. For example, It was such a long story that I soon lost the thread. This expression uses thread in the sense of "something that connects the various points of a narrative." [Mid-1900s]
threads
n. clothing. When’d you get new threads, man?