tendril, n.
(ˈtɛndrɪl)
Also 6 -yll, -elle, 6–8 -el, 7 -ell, 8 -ill.
[Origin uncertain; app. from L. tendĕre, F. tendre to stretch; in its actual form and sense only in Eng. See Note below.]
1. a. A slender thread-like organ or appendage of a plant (consisting of a modified stem, branch, flower-stalk, leaf, or part of a leaf), often growing in a spiral form, which stretches out and attaches itself to or twines round some other body so as to support the plant. (Distinguished from a twining stem by not bearing leaves.)
| 1538 Elyot, Capreolus,..the tendrell of a vyne, whiche wyndeth diuers ways, called also Pampinus. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. lxxxviii. 441 Litle claspers or tendrelles, where⁓withal it taketh holdefast vpon hedges, trees, poles, and rayles. 1611 Cotgr., Tendron..a tendrell, or the tender branch, or sprig of a plant. 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 307 Her..tresses..in wanton ringlets wav'd As the Vine curles her tendrils. 1768 Sterne Sent. Journ. (1778) II. 175 (Maria) A couple of vine leaves, tied round with a tendril. 1807 J. E. Smith Phys. Bot. 224 Cirrus. Tendrils or claspers when young are usually put forth in a straight direction; but they presently become spiral. 1858 Carpenter Veg. Phys. §538 Nearly all the plants of the group are climbers, and most of them support themselves by tendrils. |
b. transf. Something resembling a tendril of a plant: as, a slender branch of a vein; a curl or ringlet of hair. (
Cf. also
tendril-footed in 3 b.)
| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 79 Sometime also seueral tendrils are communicated vnto it from the spermatical veines. 1814 Byron Lara ii. xxi, The glossy tendrils of his raven hair. 1859 Geo. Eliot A. Bede xliii, The dark tendrils of hair,..the rounded cheek and the pouting lips. |
c. fig.,
esp. in reference to a ‘clinging’ affection or attachment.
| 1841 Emerson Lect., Man the Reformer Wks. (Bohn) II. 238 Inextricable seem to be the twinings and tendrils of this evil. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xxii, Her own earnest nature threw out its tendrils, and wound itself around the majestic book. 1891 T. Hardy Tess II. xiv, Her foolish soul sent back tendrils of yearning towards it [her father's house]. |
† 2. Used to render F.
tendron bud (see
tendron) in
fig. sense ‘young girl’.
Obs.| 1603 Florio Montaigne iii. ix. (1632) 554 Continually stored with young tendrels or lasses, to keepe his old-frozen limbs warme a nights. 1639 S. Du Verger tr. Camus' Admir. Events 313 Hee sends this tendrell to schoole againe. |
3. attrib. and
Comb. a. attrib. Having or bearing tendrils, as
tendril brier,
tendril hop,
tendril vine; of or belonging to a tendril, resembling or consisting of a tendril, as
tendril career,
tendril finger,
tendril hand,
tendril-hold,
tendril-ring,
tendril-talon.
b. objective, instrumental, parasynthetic, etc., as
tendril-bearer,
tendril-climber;
tendril-footed,
tendril-like adjs.| 1872 Darwin Orig. Spec. vii. (ed. 6) 196 Gradations..between simple twiners and *tendril-bearers. |
| c 1711 Petiver Gazophyl. vi. Tab. lviii, Triangular *Tendril Bryar... A very odd Anomalous Plant. |
| 1957 C. Day Lewis Pegasus 45 Or too much reason chill the air For your *tendril career. |
| 1875 Bennett & Dyer Sachs' Bot. 197 A distinction is drawn between *Tendril-climbers (as Vitis) and Stem-climbers (as Phaseolus, Humulus, Convolvulus, &c.). |
| 1929 Oxford Poetry 5 The *tendril fingers groping for the bright Eternal beauty. |
| 1843 Carpenter Anim. Phys. 94 The class Cirrhipoda, or *tendril-footed animals. |
| 1939 Dylan Thomas Map of Love 14 Shall she receive a bellyful of weeds And bear those *tendril hands I touch across The agonized, two seas. |
| 1967 J. Stallworthy Almond Tree 11, I am called to the cot to see your focus shift, take *tendril-hold on a shaft of sun. |
| 1757 Dyer Fleece i. 62 The curling growth Of *tendril hops, that flaunt upon their poles. |
| 1836–9 Todd's Cycl. Anat. II. 146/2 The *tendril-like branches of the arteria profunda. |
| 1791 E. Darwin Bot. Gard. ii. 150 Long horrent thorns his mossy legs surround, And *tendril-talons root him to the ground. |
| 1743 Francis tr. Hor., Epod. xv. 3 When round my Neck as curls the *Tendril-Vine—(Loose are its Curlings, if compar'd to thine). |
| 1896 Westm. Gaz. 20 Oct. 10/2 Framed in Romanesque *tendril work. |
Hence
ˈtendril v. intr. (
nonce-wd.) to curl like a tendril;
ˈtendrilled,
-iled (
-ɪld)
a., having a tendril or tendrils (in
quot. 1839
transf. curly);
tendriˈliferous a. [
-ferous], bearing tendrils;
ˈtendrilly,
ˈtendrilous adjs., full of tendrils; resembling a tendril.
| 1894 Crockett Lilac Sunbonnet 18 Fair hair, crisping and *tendrilling over her brow. |
| 1806 J. Galpine Brit. Bot. §319 Fumaria..stem climbing: petioles *tendrilled. 1822 Hortus Angl. II. 126 A[ntirrhinum] Cirrhosa. Tendriled Toad Flax. 1839 Bailey Festus xx. (1852) 375 Some young thing with tiny hands, And rosy cheeks, and flossy tendrilled locks. |
| 1900 W. Wallace in Ann. Bot. Dec. 639 A *tendriliferous liane. |
| 1863 Holme Lee Annie Warleigh III. 25 A Virginian creeper twined its thousands of *tendrilly sprays up the rustic pillars. |
| 1857 Wood Com. Obj. Sea Shore 58 The long, curling, *tendrilous appendages..affix themselves to sea-weeds..and..anchor the egg firmly. |
[
Note. With
tendril,
cf. F.
tendrillon bud, tender sprout or shoot,
dim. of
tendron in same sense, also
fig. a ‘bud’, a young girl; also cartilage; which Hatz.-Darm. refer to
tendre adj. tender. But Paré (16th c.) took
tendron as synonymous with
capréole tendril, clasper (‘La vigne par ses tendrons ou capréoles tortues embrasse toutes choses’), and L.
capreolus (rendered by Elyot 1538 ‘tendrell’) was by R. Estienne, 1536, glossed by
tendon, a
deriv. of L.
tendĕre, F.
tendre to stretch. There was thus in 16th c. F. some confusion between
tendon and
tendron, which appears to have influenced the
Eng. use of
tendril and associated it with
tendre to stretch rather than with
tendre tender. See also Weekley in
Trans. Philol. Soc. 1909.]
______________________________
Add:
ˈtendrillar a., resembling a tendril or tendrils.
| 1928 in Funk's Stand. Dict. 1976 Seenappa & Nath in K. L. Chadha Proc. 3rd Internat. Symp. Sub-Trop. & Trop. Hort. I. 186 The yield data of the plants with tendrillar flowers were compared to those with normal flowers in the same variety. 1987 Research & Devel. Jan. 60/1 The material, called tendrillar carbonaceous material, is a by-product of a TRW technique called the B extraction and concentration (Beacon) process. |