threading

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The act or process of passing or guiding something through an opening or along a path, as a thread is drawn through a needle.

   The threading of film through the projector must be done carefully.

   Careful threading of the cable through the wall kept the wires hidden.

   Similarfeeding, routing, insertion, loading

   Note

   Usually a mass noun for the work itself, but it can also be counted. In Alexander Gelbukh's Computational Linguistics and Intelligent Text Processing (2011), e-mails have "up to four threadings," each one a separate act of stringing a message into a thread. Use the plural only when the individual instances matter. For the general process of feeding film or cable, the uncountable form is the natural choice.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   A hair-removal method of Eastern origin in which a twisted cotton thread is rolled over the skin to pluck hairs out at the follicle.

   Many salons now offer threading as a gentler alternative to waxing.

   The technician used threading to shape her eyebrows in minutes.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle of thread.

   The technician is threading the film through the projector.

   They are threading wire through the narrow conduit.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. In "she is threading a needle" it is the progressive. In "threading beads takes patience" it is a gerund that still takes a direct object. Figurative uses are common, as in threading one's way through a crowd or between obstacles. Once it takes "of" or a plural, as in "threadings," it has become the noun for the process.

   She spent the afternoon threading pearls onto silk.

   We were threading our way between the stalls.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The helical ridge formed around a screw or bolt that allows it to fasten into a matching part.

   The machinist inspected the threading on each bolt for damage.

   Fine threading lets the screw advance slowly with each turn.

   Similarthread

   Note

   Engineering's word for the thread as a feature of a part: machinists speak of the threading on a bolt. It is specified by pitch, lead and thread angle, and it may be external, as on a bolt, or internal, as in a nut. The two must match for the parts to mate. Fine threading moves the screw forward less with each turn, which allows slow, precise adjustment.

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