Word.ws English Dictionary

grapevine

UK/ˈɡɹeɪp.vaɪn/

grapevine noun: the plant, a vine of genus Vitis, on which grapes grow.

Noun

grapevine (plural grapevines)

  1. The plant, a vine of genus Vitis, on which grapes grow.
    • Although many grapevines have geographical names, these rarely reflect their real origin, if known at all.
    Synonyms:
    winetree
  2. An informal person-to-person means of circulating information or gossip.
    • I heard through the grapevine that Jim will be leaving soon.
    • The Bat—they called him the Bat. […] Most lone wolves had a moll at any rate—women were their ruin—but if the Bat had a moll, not even the grapevine telegraph could locate her.1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, “The Shadow of the Bat”, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, →OCLC, pages 6–7
  3. (rare, apparently primarily Indian English) A rumor.
    • The legend, like all army grapevine, got around to me.1937 February, Hudson Hawley, “There IS a Saluting Demon”, in American Legion Monthly, volume 22, number 2, page 23
    • The grapevine was that the reason for the school closure was to do with the fact that a lot of students from Bonda had absconded to go to war because Bonda was close to the border between Mozambique and Zimbabwe.2009, Sinikiwe Joyce Msindo, Sweet Lemons, page 9
  4. A move in which the feet are alternately placed in front of each other, while both remaining on the ice or ground, incorporating half-turns.
  5. A leglock.
  6. A dance figure in partner dancing that includes sidesteps and steps across the support foot. See Grapevine (dance move).

Verb

grapevine (third-person singular simple present grapevines, present participle grapevining, simple past and past participle grapevined)

  1. (transitive) To restrain in a leglock.
    • From the top he grapevined his leg around Tibbits' leg and planted his elbow in his opponent's opposite side.2007, Steve Wolfe, Call Us Champions: More Alaska Wrestling Stories
    • The Low Mount is the position where your hips are tight to your opponent's and your legs are usually grapevined or locked underneath his.2008, Saulo Ribeiro, Jiu-Jitsu University
  2. (transitive) To drape or curl around adjacent objects.
    • This results from the plug wires being grapevined around each other too closely.1953 October, E.F. Lindsley, “What You Can Do With Spark-Plug Tester”, in Popular Science, volume 163, number 4, page 204
    • I drove around town looking at the limp glitter of Christmas decorations grapevined around traffic lights which just blinked after a certain hour, even on a Friday night.2012, Daniel Handler, Watch Your Mouth
  3. (intransitive) To move one's body in a smooth undulating wave while stepping in the direction the wave is moving.
    • Up on the stage, the dancers twirled and whirled in time to the music and then grapevined across the broad expanse and exited stage left.2013, S.C. Rackes, Cast a Dark Shadow, page 25
    • The underwear-baker grapevined down the length of the display and grabbed a to-go box from the stack on top of it.2020, Emily Henry, Beach Read
  4. (transitive) To score mortar at a joint.
    • The bridge is faced with rusticated stone and grapevined mortar joints, a trademark of WPA-built structures in southeast Colorado, and features beveled stone piers, corbeled copings and tapered voussoirs for the arches.1986, Rebecca Herbst, Vicki Rottman, Historic Bridges of Colorado, page 88
    • Generally the mortar line was “grapevined” (scored) and “penciled” (the score painted with a fine white line), which separated each brick.2021, Clay Lancaster, Antebellum Architecture of Kentucky
  5. (intransitive, transitive) Of information, to spread as a rumor.
    • For several years, as Mr. Watson's challenge gradually grapevined its way through the business world, many business groups asked Mr. Russell to speak at their directors' meetings and conventions.1958, Walter Russell, Lao Russell, The World Crisis: Its Explanation and Solution, page 94
    • But the story grapevined around to Marshal Petain.1964, Dorothy Shipley White, Seeds of Discord, page 27
  6. (intransitive, transitive) Of a person or group, to spread (a rumor).
    • The doctor's orders were soon grapevined around the league, and all the bench jockeys on the circuit were quickly counting ten on every pitch Lefty made.2014, Gordon S. (Mickey) Cochrane, Baseball: The Fans' Game, page 125
    • His flock had already grapevined the what and why.2015, Robert A. Bonner, Embers in the Ashes (Of History and Indifference)
  7. (transitive) To link up through an informal communication network.
    • But with the Negro foster homes in Pasadena grapevined together, the circumstances of little Narva did not make anyone enthusiastic about taking her into their homes.2005, Okeyo A. Jumal, Spiritual Shackles: Historical Novel, page 63

Proper noun capitalized: Grapevine

Grapevine

  1. An unincorporated community in Grant County, Arkansas.
  2. An unincorporated community in Kern County, California, at the foot of a grade called The Grapevine.
  3. An unincorporated community in Hopkins County, Kentucky.
  4. A city in Tarrant County, Texas.

grapevine meaning in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada

grapevine in Tamil

a grapevine
அராவாரம் arāvāram

grapevine in Telugu

the plant on which grapes grow
తీగ tīga

grapevine in Malayalam

the plant on which grapes grow
മുന്തിരിവള്ളി muntirivaḷḷi

grapevine in Kannada

ದ್ರಾಕ್ಷಿಬಳ್ಳಿ, ದ್ರಾಕ್ಷಾಲತೆ
More languagesFewer languages
grapevine in Tagalog
baging
grapevine in Arabic
جَفْنَة jafna, كَرْمَة karma, دَالِيَة dāliya
grapevine in Persian
تاک tâk, مو mow, رز raz, انگور angur
grapevine in Thai
องุ่น à-ngùn, สายสนกลใน, พรายกระซิบ
grapevine in Vietnamese
cây nho
grapevine in Myanmar
စပျစ်ပင် ca.pyacpang

Examples of grapevine in a sentence

  • Twitchers are very mobile and may travel great distances to see rare birds, of which they hear through their efficient ‘grapevine’.1981, Peter Weaver, The Birdwatcher's Dictionary, London: T & AD Poyser, page 120:
  • The grapevine was so fast that sometimes news was circulated before it happened.2010, Don Briddell, The Republic of Crisfield, page 89:
  • But the director denied the grapevine and more guesses and assumptions starting flowing in.2016, indiaglitz.com, "Thampi Kannanthanam confirms that Mohanlal's Rajavinte Makan Sequel not dropped"...
  • The grapevine was that Saina believed that Gopichand was focussing more on PV Sindhu.·2020 January 13, “Pullela Gopichand blames Prakash Padukone for encouraging Saina Nehwal to leave Hyderabad”, in ESPN:

All 31 example sentences with grapevine

Synonyms of grapevine

All synonyms of grapevine

Forms of grapevine

Noun
pluralgrapevines
alternative formgrape vine
alternative formgrape-vine
Verb
third-person singular presentgrapevines
present participlegrapevining
past participlegrapevined
pastgrapevined

Plural of grapevine: grapevines

Origin of grapevine

From grape + vine.

In Texas, from grapevine, referring to the wild grapes that grew in the area.

Words formed from grapevine

Phrases with grapevine

Questions about grapevine

What does grapevine mean?
Grapevine means the plant, a vine of genus Vitis, on which grapes grow.
What is grapevine in Tamil?
Grapevine in Tamil is அராவாரம் (arāvāram). See Grapevine meaning in Tamil.
How do you use grapevine in a sentence?
Twitchers are very mobile and may travel great distances to see rare birds, of which they hear through their efficient ‘grapevine’.
What part of speech is grapevine?
Grapevine can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce grapevine?
Grapevine is pronounced /ˈɡɹeɪp.vaɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of grapevine?
The plural of grapevine is grapevines.

Words near grapevine in the dictionary

  1. grapestones
  2. grapetini
  3. grapetinis
  4. grapetree
  5. grapetrees
  6. grapevine
  7. grapevine effect
  8. grapevine effects
  9. grapevine knot
  10. grapevine moth
  11. grapevine moths

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: grapevine (page history and authors); Grapevine (page history and authors); அராவாரம் (Tamil) (page history and authors); grapevine (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-AnotherFriendlyHuman-grapevine.wav.

Cite this entry: “grapevine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/grapevine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.