grapevine

noun

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.”

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.”

   “I heard it through the grapevine Not much longer would you be mine.”

   “Twitchers are very mobile and may travel great distances to see rare birds, of which they hear through their efficient ‘grapevine’.”

   “The grapevine was so fast that sometimes news was circulated before it happened.”

3. (rare)A rumor.

   “The legend, like all army grapevine, got around to me.”

   “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.”

   “An image of Mohanlal with a tonsured head recently spread online and people started guessing about the film it belonged to. The majority guess was for a film directed by Prajith which had announced a character that was supposed to be acted by Mohanlal named Benz Vasu. But the director denied the grapevine and more guesses and assumptions starting flowing in.”

   “The grapevine was that Saina believed that Gopichand was focussing more on PV Sindhu.·”

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

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.”

   “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.”

   “So now she's grapevined me, I can't straighten my legs, which means I can't generate the momentum I need to bridge.”

2. (transitive)To drape or curl around adjacent objects.

   “This results from the plug wires being grapevined around each other too closely.”

   “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.”

   “Balance on the back of the sit bones with the arms “grapevined” under the calves, with hands wrapping around to hold the ankles.”

   “A matted beard tingled from his shin and grapevined all over the exposed parts of his body.”

   “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.”

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.”

   “The underwear-baker grapevined down the length of the display and grabbed a to-go box from the stack on top of it.”

   “When the room grapevined left, I grapevined right, causing a head-on collision with the lady next to me.”

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.”

   “Generally the mortar line was “grapevined” (scored) and “penciled” (the score painted with a fine white line), which separated each brick.”

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.”

   “But the story grapevined around to Marshal Petain.”

   “Word of the fight grapevined fast, and from all the other bonus army camps reinforcements rushed in.”

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.”

   “His flock had already grapevined the what and why.”

   “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.”

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.”