vine
noun
any plant having a long, slender stem that trails or creeps on the ground or climbs by winding itself about a support or holding fast with tendrils or claspers.
vine
American
[vahyn]
/ vaɪn /
noun
-
vines
plural
-
any plant having a long, slender stem that trails or creeps on the ground or climbs by winding itself about a support or holding fast with tendrils or claspers.
-
the stem of any such plant.
-
a grape plant.
vine
1
British
/ vaɪn /
noun
-
any of various plants, esp the grapevine, having long flexible stems that creep along the ground or climb by clinging to a support by means of tendrils, leafstalks, etc
-
the stem of such a plant
Vine
2
British
/ vaɪn /
noun
vine
Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of vine
1250–1300; Middle English < Old French vi ( g ) ne < Latin vīnea vine(yard), equivalent to vīn ( um ) wine + -ea, feminine of -eus -eous
Explanation
A vine is a plant that spreads by creeping along the ground or climbing up some kind of support. Grapes are one example of a vine, and ivy is another. The famous children's book Madeline takes place "in an old house in Paris that was covered with vines." Vines naturally trail along or climb trees, fences, and houses. The root of vine means "wine," and the original definition was "plant bearing grapes for making wine."
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:
Brushing his hand over crackling vine leaves, French winemaker Gregory Guibergia was relieved a wildfire only scorched the edge of his vineyard but he feared its smoke would ruin this year's vintage.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
As a result, McMullen says he’s leaving 30% of his fruit to rot on the vine this season.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 24, 2026
We do need to eliminate poverty for older Americans, but the answer lies in strengthening SSI, which has been allowed to wither on the vine.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 10, 2026
Monk fruit is a perennial vine native to China and a member of the gourd family.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 14, 2026
But every idea, no matter how good, seemed to wither on the vine of his imagination.
From "We'll Fly Away" by Bryan Bliss
"Yet poetry is a form in which we value and which has meaning. And so there's many ways in which Vine was poetry."
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
The tabloid Daily Mail's Sarah Vine blamed social media for amplifying the story.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
While at Oracle, he started creating comedic videos, which he likens to Dilbert cartoons, for the now-defunct six-second video app Vine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
The company, which is valued at $5 billion, is based in a glass-and-steel office building near the fabled intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2026
It finally fell to two men from Cambridge University, a geophysicist named Drummond Matthews and a graduate student of his named Fred Vine, to draw all the strands together.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
The dogs’ sleeping quarters are modeled after the park’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride, with its fort-like corridors made of sun-dried brick, the walls strewn with overgrown jungle vines.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
A new winery near Slane in County Meath is believed to be the biggest ever planting of vines in Ireland - about 36,000 vines on 30 hectares of land.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
As Europe bakes in yet another heatwave, German winegrower Florian Weingart has scattered straw on the ground to keep moisture trapped in the earth and protect his prized vines from extreme temperatures.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
Further south, in County Waterford, David Dennison started his Viking Winery in 2009, planting 30 vines of rondo.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
On the vines rest the hulking metal rollers Teeth had mentioned.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
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.
