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Definition of "tendril" [ten•dril]

  • A twisting, threadlike structure by which a twining plant, such as a grape or cucumber, grasps an object or a plant for support. (noun)
  • Something, such as a ringlet of hair, that is long, slender, and curling. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "tendril" in a sentence
  • "The colony spread out a thin tendril and consumed each."
  • "You wake to find a wet snow has sneaked in after midnight wrapping the branches with an airy gauze, spangled with diamonds so that every snarly twig and tendril is an epiphany of white etched against the purplish-blue of an undecided sky."
  • "I begin to think that one of the commonest means of transition is the same individual plant having the same part in different states: thus Corydalis claviculata, if you look to one leaf, may be called a tendril-bearer; if you look to another leaf it may be called a leaf-climber."