grapevine

Etymology

grape + vine

noun

1. The plant, a vine of genus Vitis, on which grapes grow.
   Although many grape vines have geographical names, those rarely reflect their real origin, if known at all.
2. 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
   The grapevine was that Saina believed that Gopichand was focussing more on PV Sindhu.· January 13, 2020, “Pullela Gopichand blames Prakash Padukone for encouraging Saina Nehwal to leave Hyderabad”, in ESPN
3. An informal person-to-person means of circulating information or gossip.
   I heard through the grapevine that Jim will be leaving soon.
   I heard it through the grapevine Not much longer would you be mine. 1966, Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong (songwriters), "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
   The grapevine was so fast that sometimes news was circulated before it happened. 2010, Don Briddell, The Republic of Crisfield, page 89
4. (skating) 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. (wrestling) A leglock.

verb

1. (transitive, wrestling) 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
   So now she's grapevined me, I can't straighten my legs, which means I can't generate the momentum I need to bridge. 2022, David Young, Sean Black, The Ground Is My Ocean
2. 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
   Balance on the back of the sit bones with the arms “grapevined” under the calves, with hands wrapping around to hold the ankles. 2014, Celeste Corey-Zopich, Brett Howard, Dawn-Marie Ickes, Pilates for Children and Adolescents
   A matted beard tingled from his shin and grapevined all over the exposed parts of his body. 2017, Aben Kandel, City for Conquest
   I grapevined my right arm around one of his legs, then flung myself backward to the ground, slamming the knife-wielding idiot into the ground, and my shoulders into the idiot. 2020, Laurell K.Hamilton, Fantastic Hope
3. 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: Tiktok made me buy it!
   When the room grapevined left, I grapevined right, causing a head-on collision with the lady next to me. 2023, Betsy Schow, Finished Being Fat: An Accidental Adventure in Losing Weight
4. 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. (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
   Word of the fight grapevined fast, and from all the other bonus army camps reinforcements rushed in. 2009, Katharine Graham, Katharine Graham's Washington
6. (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)
   It will not only be long remembered by the nine million Chinese on Formosa and the twelve and half million overseas Chinese, but will soon be grapevined to the Chinese mainland and whispered there from person to person among the hundreds of millions of Chinese who have been living and suffering for the last five years under Communist tyranny. 2022, Chih-Ping Chou, Carlos Lin, Power of Freedom: Hu Shih's Political Writings, page 282
7. 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