grapevine
noun
grapevine
1 American
[greyp-vahyn]
/ ˈgreɪpˌvaɪn /
Grapevine
2
American
[greyp-vahyn]
/ ˈgreɪpˌvaɪn /
noun
grapevine
British
/ ˈɡreɪpˌvaɪn /
noun
-
any of several vitaceous vines of the genus Vitis, esp V. vinifera of E Asia, widely cultivated for its fruit (grapes): family Vitaceae
-
informal an unofficial means of relaying information, esp from person to person
-
a wrestling hold in which a wrestler entwines his own leg around his opponent's and exerts pressure against various joints
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
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
"I'd heard on the grapevine that she was looking for a song or two, so I set about writing some."
From BBC ● 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
He heard from the family grapevine that his gift left her speechless.
From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman
"We wouldn't encourage willingly driving your vehicle into the water," said Katharina Gamboa of the Grapevine Police Department, in comments reported by the BBC's US news partner CBS News.
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
“Tastefully updated 1,685-square-foot single-family home in the heart of Grapevine, famously known as Post Malone’s childhood home,” the listing notes.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 18, 2026
That includes the Grapevine along Interstate 5 and the Highway 14 corridor, where up to 4 inches of snow is possible.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026
My mother found out by the "Grapevine telegraph" that I was going to be carried to Kentucky.
From Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves, North Carolina Narratives, Part 1 by Various
In October 1916, in Tujunga Canyon near Sunland, a farmer named Cornelius Johnson set out a trap for a bear that had been raiding his grapevines.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Just 50 miles from the thriving Somerset grapevines, Phil Collins shows me a much sadder sight.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
"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
Dionysus waved his hand, and a new chair grew out of the ground next to Silenus’s—a throne made of grapevines.
From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
