TWINE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does twine mean? 

• TWINE (noun)
  The noun TWINE has 1 sense:

1. a lightweight cord

  Familiarity information: TWINE used as a noun is very rare.

• TWINE (verb)
  The verb TWINE has 4 senses:

1. spin, wind, or twist together

2. arrange or or coil around

3. make by twisting together or intertwining

4. form into a spiral shape

  Familiarity information: TWINE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TWINE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A lightweight cord

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

string; twine

Hypernyms ("twine" is a kind of...):

cord (a line made of twisted fibers or threads)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "twine"):

packthread (a strong three-ply twine used to sew or tie packages)

chalk line; snap line; snapline (a chalked string used in the building trades to make a straight line on a vertical surface)

Derivation:

twine (spin, wind, or twist together)

• TWINE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they twine    ... he / she / it twines   
Past simple: twined   
Past participle: twined   
-ing form: twining   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Spin, wind, or twist together

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

enlace; entwine; interlace; intertwine; lace; twine

Context example:

intertwined hearts

Hypernyms (to "twine" is one way to...):

distort; twine; twist (form into a spiral shape)

Verb group:

twine (make by twisting together or intertwining)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "twine"):

wattle (interlace to form wattle)

splice (join by interweaving strands)

knot; ravel; tangle (tangle or complicate)

plash; pleach (interlace the shoots of)

wind; wreathe (form into a wreath)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Antonym:

untwine (undo what has been twined together)

Derivation:

twine (a lightweight cord)

twiner (someone who intertwines (e.g. threads) or forms something by twisting or interlacing)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Arrange or or coil around

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

roll; twine; wind; wrap

Context example:

She wrapped her arms around the child

Hypernyms (to "twine" is one way to...):

displace; move (cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "twine"):

spool (wind onto a spool or a reel)

reel (wind onto or off a reel)

ball (form into a ball by winding or rolling)

clew; clue (roll into a ball)

coil; curl; loop (wind around something in coils or loops)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something PP

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make by twisting together or intertwining

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

twine a rope

Hypernyms (to "twine" is one way to...):

create; make (make or cause to be or to become)

Verb group:

enlace; entwine; interlace; intertwine; lace; twine (spin, wind, or twist together)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

twiner (someone who intertwines (e.g. threads) or forms something by twisting or interlacing)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Form into a spiral shape

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

distort; twine; twist

Context example:

The cord is all twisted

Hypernyms (to "twine" is one way to...):

change form; change shape; deform (assume a different shape or form)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "twine"):

wrench; wring (twist and compress, as if in pain or anguish)

contort; deform; distort; wring (twist and press out of shape)

entangle; mat; snarl; tangle (twist together or entwine into a confusing mass)

enlace; entwine; interlace; intertwine; lace; twine (spin, wind, or twist together)

spin (work natural fibers into a thread)

interweave; weave (interlace by or as if by weaving)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

 Context examples 

They sat with their arms twined around each other, and in the pause her mother patted her hand and waited for her to go on.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It is a piece of tarred twine.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He had my head as in a vice, but I twined round him somehow, and stopped him for a moment, entreating him not to beat me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Without speaking, without smiling, without seeming to recognise in me a human being, he only twined my waist with his arm and riveted me to his side.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Every plant, even the smaller ones, curls and writhes to the green surface, twining itself round its stronger and taller brethren in the effort.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And such a tangle—halyards, sheets, guys, down-hauls, shrouds, stays, all washed about and back and forth and through, and twined and knotted by the sea.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

They smiled ever at poor dear Madam Mina; and as their laugh came through the silence of the night, they twined their arms and pointed to her, and said in those so sweet tingling tones that Jonathan said were of the intolerable sweetness of the water-glasses:—"Come, sister. Come to us. Come! Come!"

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

You can remember how it was in the winter months before Toulon, Stone, when we had neither firing, wine, beef, pork, nor flour aboard the ships, nor a spare piece of rope, canvas, or twine.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So he walked forward to the tree, but just as he came under the first branches they bent down and twined around him, and the next minute he was raised from the ground and flung headlong among his fellow travelers.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

He began to collect them and sort them out, in packages of a hundred, tying each package securely with twine.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)