Thread (thr&ebreve_;d), n. [OE. threed, þred, AS. þr&aemacr_;d; akin to D. draad, G. draht wire, thread, OHG. drāt, Icel. þrāðr a thread, Sw. tråd, Dan. traad, and AS. þrāwan to twist. See Throw, and cf. Third.] 1. A very small twist of flax, wool, cotton, silk, or other fibrous substance, drawn out to considerable length; a compound cord consisting of two or more single yarns doubled, or joined together, and twisted; also, one fiber of a cord composed of multiple fibers.
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2. A filament of any substance, as of glass, gold or silver; a filamentous part of an object, such as a flower; a component fiber of any or of any fibrous substance, as of bark.
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3. The prominent part of the spiral of a screw or nut; the rib. See Screw, n., 1.
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4. (Fig.) Something continued in a long course or tenor; a recurrent theme or related sequence of events in a larger story; as the thread of a story, or of life, or of a discourse. Bp. Burnet.
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5. Fig.: Composition; quality; fineness. [Obs.]
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A neat courtier,
Of a most elegant thread. B. Jonson.
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6. (Computers) A related sequence of instructions or actions within a program that runs at least in part independent of other actions within the program; -- such threads are capable of being executed only in oprating systems permittnig multitasking.
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7. (Computers) A sequence of messages posted to an on-line newsgroup or discussion group, dealing with the same topic; -- messages in such a thread typically refer to a previous posting, thus allowing their identification as part of the thread. Some news-reading programs allow a user to follow a single such thread independent of the other postings to that newsgroup.
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Air thread, the fine white filaments which are seen floating in the air in summer, the production of spiders; gossamer. -- Thread and thrum, the good and bad together. [Obs.] Shak. -- Thread cell (Zoöl.), a lasso cell. See under Lasso. -- Thread herring (Zoöl.), the gizzard shad. See under Gizzard. -- Thread lace, lace made of linen thread. -- Thread needle, a game in which children stand in a row, joining hands, and in which the outer one, still holding his neighbor, runs between the others; -- called also thread the needle.
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