YARN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does yarn mean? 

• YARN (noun)
  The noun YARN has 2 senses:

1. the act of giving an account describing incidents or a course of events

2. a fine cord of twisted fibers (of cotton or silk or wool or nylon etc.) used in sewing and weaving

  Familiarity information: YARN used as a noun is rare.

• YARN (verb)
  The verb YARN has 1 sense:

1. tell or spin a yarn

  Familiarity information: YARN used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• YARN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of giving an account describing incidents or a course of events

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

narration; recital; yarn

Context example:

his narration was hesitant

Hypernyms ("yarn" is a kind of...):

account; report (the act of informing by verbal report)

Meronyms (parts of "yarn"):

body (the central message of a communication)

introduction (the first section of a communication)

close; closing; conclusion; end; ending (the last section of a communication)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "yarn"):

recounting; relation; telling (an act of narration)

Derivation:

yarn (tell or spin a yarn)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A fine cord of twisted fibers (of cotton or silk or wool or nylon etc.) used in sewing and weaving

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

thread; yarn

Hypernyms ("yarn" is a kind of...):

cord (a line made of twisted fibers or threads)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "yarn"):

cotton (thread made of cotton fibers)

dental floss; floss (a soft thread for cleaning the spaces between the teeth)

floss (a soft loosely twisted thread used in embroidery)

Lastex (yarn that has an elastic core wound around with cotton or silk or nylon or rayon threads)

ligature (thread used by surgeons to bind a vessel (as to constrict the flow of blood))

metallic (a yarn made partly or entirely of metal)

nap; pile (the yarn (as in a rug or velvet or corduroy) that stands up from the weave)

purl (gold or silver wire thread)

suture (thread of catgut or silk or wire used by surgeons to stitch tissues together)

tinsel (a thread with glittering metal foil attached)

warp (yarn arranged lengthways on a loom and crossed by the woof)

filling; pick; weft; woof (the yarn woven across the warp yarn in weaving)

worsted; worsted yarn (a tightly twisted woolen yarn spun from long-staple wool)

• YARN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they yarn    ... he / she / it yarns   
Past simple: yarned   
Past participle: yarned   
-ing form: yarning   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Tell or spin a yarn

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "yarn" is one way to...):

narrate; recite; recount; tell (narrate or give a detailed account of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

yarn (the act of giving an account describing incidents or a course of events)

 Context examples 

Come away, Hawkins, he would say; come and have a yarn with John.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

We sat down and we drank and we yarned about old times, but the more he drank the less I liked the look on his face.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We've told yarns by the camp-fire in the prairies; and dressed one another's wounds after trying a landing at the Marquesas; and drunk healths on the shore of Titicaca.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

To make the yarns highly elastic, they introduced so much twist that the yarns coiled like an over-twisted rubber band.

(Energy-Harvesting Yarns Generate Electricity, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Well, when I was up there I heard some yarns of the same kind—traditions of Indians and the like, but with somethin' behind them, no doubt.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In the afternoon, while the cook was below asleep and I was peeling the everlasting potatoes, Louis dropped into the galley for a “yarn.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Josy-phine! and she had to leave her paradise to wind yarn, wash the poodle, or read Belsham's Essays by the hour together.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“On the voyage, I shall endeavour,” said Mr. Micawber, “occasionally to spin them a yarn; and the melody of my son Wilkins will, I trust, be acceptable at the galley-fire. When Mrs. Micawber has her sea-legs on—an expression in which I hope there is no conventional impropriety—she will give them, I dare say, “Little Tafflin”.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Nobody even really knows if Plato meant for his writings to be taken as documentation of the existence of the city or if he was just sewing a yarn to serve as a warning against the dangers of excess, but that hasn’t stopped plenty of people from searching for Atlantis.

(Researchers Claim to Have Found Mythical City of Atlantis in Spain, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

There are more yarns to be told, and other wounds to be healed, and another health to be drunk.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)