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View synonyms for yarn

yarn

[ yahrn ]

noun

  1. thread made of natural or synthetic fibers and used for knitting and weaving.
  2. a continuous strand or thread made from glass, metal, plastic, etc.
  3. the thread, in the form of a loosely twisted aggregate of fibers, as of hemp, of which rope is made rope yarn.
  4. a tale, especially a long story of adventure or incredible happenings:

    He spun a yarn that outdid any I had ever heard.



verb (used without object)

  1. Informal. to spin a yarn; tell stories.

yarn

/ jɑːn /

noun

  1. a continuous twisted strand of natural or synthetic fibres, used in weaving, knitting, etc
  2. informal.
    a long and often involved story or account, usually telling of incredible or fantastic events
  3. spin a yarn informal.
    spin a yarn
    1. to tell such a story
    2. to make up or relate a series of excuses


verb

  1. intr to tell such a story or stories

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Word History and Origins

Origin of yarn1

before 1000; Middle English; Old English gearn; cognate with German Garn; akin to Old Norse gǫrn gut, Greek chordḗ intestine, chord 1, Lithuanian žarnà entrails, Latin hernia a rupture, Sanskrit hirā vein

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Word History and Origins

Origin of yarn1

Old English gearn; related to Old High German garn yarn, Old Norse görn gut, Greek khordē string, gut

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Idioms and Phrases

see spin a yarn .

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Example Sentences

Schlacter’s installation, titled “Darn” is crafted from yarn, paper mâché sculptures, and hand-made, wall-mounted loom structures.

Marikar’s is a good yarn about a company that is doing well by trying to do good.

From Fortune

They come in two versions, a liquid silicone rubber that looks a lot like Apple’s original Sport Band and a braided version made from recycled yarn that truly sparkles.

From Fortune

Christopher Plummer hopes audiences will enjoy watching a “good yarn” when his new series Departure debuts on Peacock Thursday.

From Fortune

Meanwhile, 40 miles south of Conover, in the town of Belmont, the Textile Technology Center at Gaston College specializes in what the industry refers to as “yarn.”

To that regard, Mulaney opens with its star spinning a longer joke-yarn based on something that had really happened to him.

Many of us strike a happy medium, leaving enough wiggle room with reality to spin a good yarn.

But at least according to its creator, it's also a meta-page-turning crime yarn—a story about storytelling.

Perhaps that's why Goldfarb didn't comment any further on his yarn.

I got a bit of flak for interviewing Kelley, though the story was widely picked up: why dive into this tabloid yarn?

I didn't take much stock in the yarn at the time, but I'm beginning to think he had it straight.

Without embarking on another endless yarn let me note the fact that there are two schools amongst our brethren afloat.

You can probably realize just how headquarters would take the sort of yarn we'd spin if we dashed in and told them the truth.

Before that time we always put rope-yarn between the lap of the boiler-plates to make the seams tight.

He said, 'Now you shall never make another boiler for me with rope-yarn.'

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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