grapevine

[ greyp-vahyn ]
See synonyms for grapevine on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a vine that bears grapes.

  2. Also called grapevine telegraph. a person-to-person method of spreading rumors, gossip, information, etc., by informal or unofficial conversation, letter writing, or the like.

  1. a private or secret source of information.

Origin of grapevine

1
1645–55; 1860–65, Americanismfor def. 2; grape + vine

Words Nearby grapevine

Other definitions for Grapevine (2 of 2)

Grapevine
[ greyp-vahyn ]

noun
  1. a town in N Texas.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use grapevine in a sentence

  • Prince Harry has heard on the grapevine that UK pop star Cheryl Cole has a crush on him - and finds it pretty funny.

    When Harry Met Cheryl | Tom Sykes | July 11, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • Every Afghan will know, through radio and the grapevine, the news that Americans burned the Quran.

  • “I had heard that just from the grapevine so I went and asked her,” Morgan recalls.

    Inside Palin's Life in Alaska | Shushannah Walshe | September 14, 2010 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • So over the past four or five years, the censorship strategy shifted from memos to an “official grapevine” type of operation.

    Why I Won't Miss Google | Huang Hung | March 24, 2010 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • We had eaten our supper and were seated on the ground, under a high, branching tree into which was trained a huge grapevine.

    Silver Chimes in Syria | W. S. Nelson
  • We briskly project ourselves to and fro in a swing of Nature's own contriving, namely, the tendrils of the wild grapevine.

    Fibble, D. D. | Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb
  • We need another axeman to clear away the fallen trees and break the nets of grapevine.

    Audrey | Mary Johnston
  • A corpse was bound to it by a binding of grapevine and the two ends of the stretcher rested upon the shoulders of the bearers.

    Pomo Bear Doctors | Samuel Alfred Barrett
  • The various applications recommended in this work for the destruction of insects, are useful on the grapevine.

    Soil Culture | J. H. Walden

British Dictionary definitions for grapevine

grapevine

/ (ˈɡreɪpˌvaɪn) /


noun
  1. any of several vitaceous vines of the genus Vitis, esp V. vinifera of E Asia, widely cultivated for its fruit (grapes): family Vitaceae

  2. informal an unofficial means of relaying information, esp from person to person

  1. a wrestling hold in which a wrestler entwines his own leg around his opponent's and exerts pressure against various joints

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012