Library / English Dictionary

TWINE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A lightweight cord

Synonyms:

string; twine

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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"):

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

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

Derivation:

twine (spin, wind, or twist together)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Form into a spiral shape

Example:

The cord is all twisted

Synonyms:

distort; twine; twist

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

Spin, wind, or twist together

Example:

intertwined hearts

Synonyms:

enlace; entwine; interlace; intertwine; lace; twine

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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"):

splice (join by interweaving strands)

knot; ravel; tangle (tangle or complicate)

plash; pleach (interlace the shoots of)

wattle (interlace to form wattle)

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 3

Meaning:

Make by twisting together or intertwining

Example:

twine a rope

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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:

Arrange or or coil around

Example:

She wrapped her arms around the child

Synonyms:

roll; twine; wind; wrap

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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

Credits

 Context examples: 

Uriah, with his long hands slowly twining over one another, made a ghastly writhe from the waist upwards, to express his concurrence in this estimation of me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I had time to notice that the pockets of the dead man had been emptied on the deck, and that his body and his grin had been wrapped from view in canvas, the folds of which the sailor, Johansen, was sewing together with coarse white twine, shoving the needle through with a leather contrivance fitted on the palm of his hand.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Jane, you please me, and you master me—you seem to submit, and I like the sense of pliancy you impart; and while I am twining the soft, silken skein round my finger, it sends a thrill up my arm to my heart.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The whole place was turned upside down, drawers burst open, and presses ransacked, with the result that an odd volume of Pope’s ‘Homer,’ two plated candlesticks, an ivory letter-weight, a small oak barometer, and a ball of twine are all that have vanished.

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

What a strange rest and pause in my life there seems to be—and in all life, within doors and without—when I sit in the quiet, shaded, orderly room, with the blue eyes of my child-wife turned towards me, and her little fingers twining round my hand!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She answered without moving, otherwise than as the arm I twined about her may have brought her blue eyes nearer to me: “I don't mean, you silly fellow, that you should use the name instead of Dora. I only mean that you should think of me that way. When you are going to be angry with me, say to yourself, “it's only my child-wife!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I thought it all extremely beautiful, and made up my mind to sleep among the hops that night: imagining some cheerful companionship in the long perspectives of poles, with the graceful leaves twining round them.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)