Meanings
comparative threadier · superlative threadiest
- Of, resembling, or capable of forming a thread; filamentous.
The roote is threddy, like the roote of the ſecond kinde of Scrophularia, and is euer[-]laſting, putting forth yearely new ſprings, as alſo doth the rootes of the other two Scrophularies.
1578, Rembert Dodoens, “Of Water Betony⸝ or Broune-wurte”, in Henry Lyte, transl., A Niewe Herball, or Historie of Plantes: […], London: […] [Henry [i.e., Hendrik van der] Loë for] Gerard Dewes, […], →OCLC, 1st part (Sundry Sortes of Herbes and Plantes), page 44 - weak.
A pulse throbbed beneath her fingers, thready but present.
2016, Kerry Greenwood, Murder and Mendelssohn, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 329
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivethin in diameter; resembling a thread
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Middle English*thredi
- Englishthready
From Middle English *thredi, *thredy (suggested by derivative Middle English thredines, þredinez (“fibrousness, stringiness”, literally “threadiness”)), equivalent to thread + -y.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Czech vláknitý
- vláknitýfilamentous
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with thready
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
thready. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thready
“thready.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thready. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “thready,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thready.
Source: thready on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.