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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
tendril
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Bugs creep around him through the tendrils and quite near a thrush is singing.
▪ But sometimes they used lashings of rattan, a jungle plant which threw out long tendrils that made natural bindings.
▪ Damp affects down particularly badly causing the fluffy tendrils to clog together and lose the ability to insulate.
▪ Fingered through permed or curly hair, they give more definition to curls and tendrils.
▪ He also has an incredible view for 360 degrees, ideal for watching wildlife and tendrils of smoke.
▪ She lit a cigarette and the smoke curled in tendrils around her face.
▪ She pushed back the warm honeyed tendrils of her hair from her neck, allowing a tantalising breeze to fan her skin.
▪ The most extreme complication seems to lie in the tendrils, which can meander most wildly.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Tendril

Tendril \Ten"dril\, n. [Shortened fr. OF. tendrillon, fr. F. tendre tender; hence, properly, the tender branch or spring of a plant: cf. F. tendrille. See Tender, a., and cf. Tendron.] (Bot.) A slender, leafless portion of a plant by which it becomes attached to a supporting body, after which the tendril usually contracts by coiling spirally.

Note: Tendrils may represent the end of a stem, as in the grapevine; an axillary branch, as in the passion flower; stipules, as in the genus Smilax; or the end of a leaf, as in the pea.

Tendril

Tendril \Ten"dril\, a. Clasping; climbing as a tendril. [R.]
--Dyer.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
tendril

"leafless plant-organ attaching to another for support," 1530s, from Middle French tendrillon "bud, shoot, cartilage," perhaps a diminutive of tendron "cartilage," from Old French tendre "soft" (see tender (adj.)), or else from Latin tendere "to stretch, extend" (see tender (v.)).

Wiktionary
tendril

n. 1 (context botany English) A thin, spirally coiling stem that attaches a plant to its support. 2 (context zoology English) A hair-like tentacle.

WordNet
tendril

n. slender stemlike structure by which some twining plants attach themselves to an object for support

Wikipedia
Tendril

In botany, a tendril is a specialized stem, leaf or petiole with a threadlike shape that is used by climbing plants for support, attachment and cellular invasion by parasitic plants, generally by twining around suitable hosts. They do not have a lamina or blade, but they can photosynthesize. They can be formed from modified shoots, modified leaves, or auxiliary branches and are sensitive to airborne chemicals, often determining the direction of growth, as in species of Cuscuta.

Usage examples of "tendril".

For the first time, the adrift and restless drow felt a tendril of herself reach out and take root in this strange land.

A multitude of anfractuous cracks spread out from the rim of the segment as though tendrils of frost were gripping the tube.

Some tendrils which consist of modified leaves--organs in all ordinary cases strongly diaheliotropic--have been rendered apheliotropic, and their tips crawl into any dark crevice.

Distinction between heliotropism and the effects of light on the periodicity of the movements of leaves--Heliotropic movements of Beta, Solanum, Zea, and Avena--Heliotropic movements towards an obscure light in Apios, Brassica, Phalaris, Tropaeolum, and Cassia--Apheliotropic movements of tendrils of Bignonia--Of flowerpeduncles of Cyclamen--Burying of the pods--Heliotropism and apheliotropism modified forms of circumnutation--Steps by which one movement is converted into the other Transversalheliotropismus or diaheliotropism influenced by epinasty, the weight of the part and apogeotropism--Apogeotropism overcome during the middle of the day by diaheliotropism--Effects of the weight of the blades of cotyledons--So called diurnal sleep--Chlorophyll injured by intense light--Movements to avoid intense light.

Elnora standing in the arbour entrance made a perfect picture, framed in green leaves and tendrils.

Cold tendrils escaped from his fingertips to surround her neck with a kind of bendable steel collar.

The peninsulas sprouted grasping tendrils, thigh-thick at the trunk but narrowing to the dimensions of plant fronds, and then narrowing further, bifurcating into lacy, fernlike hazes of awesome complexity.

The first frosts, on the other hand, shrivel the bines of white bryony, which part and hang separated, and in the spring a fresh bine pushes up with greyish green leaves and tendrils feeling for support.

Thick tendrils of ooze burst from the center of the blob on her shoulder and wrapped themselves around her waist and legs, dragging Tash down to her knees.

His ear tendrils instantly caught the id-vibrations from the contents of the bowland he gave it not even a second glance.

The King received us in a lightly furnished reception room, which had a dado with sinuous tendrils of foliage, its colouring and form exactly like one at the Marcellinus villa.

Even now the deuced tendrils crept out of her chignon and tickled her face.

It sniffed them closely, snapped at their genitals, and was slapped smartly by the thick tendril that the dryad wore as guardian of her privacy.

He struck the dryad with her tendril and she screamed and loosed her grip on his penis.

The patterns he had learned were safely ensconced in the neural tendrils of his fixed memory He probably could learn to use them.