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• grapevine
  grapevine

  noun

  a vine that bears grapes.
• Grapevine
  Grapevine

  noun

  a town in N Texas.

grapevine

¹ American  

[greyp-vahyn] / ˈgreɪpˌvaɪn /

noun

grapevines plural

1. a vine that bears grapes.

2. Also called grapevine telegraph.  a person-to-person method of spreading rumors, gossip, information, etc., by informal or unofficial conversation, letter writing, or the like.

3. a private or secret source of information.

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Grapevine ² American  

[greyp-vahyn] / ˈgreɪpˌvaɪn /

noun

1. a town in N Texas.

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grapevine British  

/ ˈɡreɪpˌvaɪn /

noun

1. any of several vitaceous vines of the genus Vitis, esp V. vinifera of E Asia, widely cultivated for its fruit (grapes): family Vitaceae

2. informal an unofficial means of relaying information, esp from person to person

3. a wrestling hold in which a wrestler entwines his own leg around his opponent's and exerts pressure against various joints

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• grapevines
  plural

Etymology

Origin of grapevine

1645–55; 1860–65, grapevine for def. 2; grape + vine

Explanation

The grapevine is a word for gossip. Anything heard on the grapevine was learned by word of mouth. In the Civil War, a grapevine telegraph was a gadget used for communicating. From there, people started talking about "the grapevine" as a source of information, especially gossip. If you heard from a friend of a friend that another friend is getting married, you heard it on the grapevine. If your cousin's cousin told you about a family scandal, you heard it on the grapevine. The grapevine is unofficial and full of hearsay: what you hear might not be accurate.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

grapevine Grapevine grapevines

Pans heave with labor-intensive dishes like çalkama, a Turkish pastry, and yaprak sarma, grapevine leaves filled by hand with a mixture of rice, onions, tomatoes and herbs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026

"Online patient communities work a lot like a neighborhood grapevine," says Ungar.

From Science Daily ● May 24, 2026

Some reporters have gotten Trump’s digits through the grapevine or from colleagues; at least one simply asked him.

From Slate ● Mar. 18, 2026

Again, no one knows for sure, but the grapevine says that Mercedes are ahead.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2025

Who else would have a container made out of two huge sycamore leaves sewn together with wild grapevine thread and filled with daylily buds?

From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

My wife and I drove up to Bakersfield and back the other day and on the home trip we stopped at Grapevine for gas and Cokes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2026

The partially-submerged vehicle was removed from near the shoreline of the south side of the lake, with the Grapevine Fire Department Water Rescue Team assisting police in the operation.

From BBC ● May 20, 2026

The event, organized by the American Conservative Union, launched with an international summit on March 25, 2026, and runs through March 28 in Grapevine, Texas.

From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2026

While attending Grapevine High School, he quickly became known as “Most Likely to Be Famous,” according to his classmates.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 18, 2026

I immediately recognized the young man about whom there had been so lively a discussion in the Golden Grapevine, Franz Schorn.

From The Lonely House by Streckfuss, Adolph

"I think this decline is very regrettable," Tariq Lenny Bas, who grew up among the grapevines of western Austria, told AFP.

From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026

“It’s much faster to do, and makes a lot more sense, when you have an entire crew,” he admitted before discussing the tractors, the road trips and the grapevines that keep him grounded.

From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2024

The workers at Wonderful Nurseries’ sprawling complex in Wasco tend to wine and table grapevines and nut tree rootstocks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 5, 2024

Consider the glassy-winged sharpshooter, which spreads a disease that kills grapevines.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2024

The decorations even extended to the walls, where grapevines had been cut and woven into wreaths, and then peppered with fall leaves and dried flowers.

From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack