thread

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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]