"hear through the grapevine" meaning in English

See hear through the grapevine in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-hear through the grapevine.ogg [Australia] Forms: hears through the grapevine [present, singular, third-person], hearing through the grapevine [participle, present], heard through the grapevine [participle, past], heard through the grapevine [past]
Etymology: From the Grapevine, a telegraph line that ran from Placerville, California, to Virginia City, Nevada, beginning in 1859, and that was loosely strung from trees so that it curled like the vines of California grapes. In 1861 it was replaced by the Pacific Telegraph, which was strung from poles, and during the American Civil War "grapevine telegraph" became proverbialized to refer to poor and rumor-prone communications in areas cut off by the war. Head templates: {{en-verb|hear<,,heard> through the grapevine}} hear through the grapevine (third-person singular simple present hears through the grapevine, present participle hearing through the grapevine, simple past and past participle heard through the grapevine)
  1. (idiomatic) To hear rumors; to learn through hearsay. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: hear on the grapevine, hear on the bush telegraph Translations (learn through rumors): kuulla puskaradiosta (Finnish), über die Buschtrommel hören (German), über die Buschtrommeln hören (German), durch die Buschtrommel hören (German), durch die Buschtrommeln hören (German), die Nachricht sprach sich herum (German), ich hab so was läuten hören (German), über die Urwaldtrommel hören (German), heyra á skotspónum (Icelandic), frétta á skotspónum (Icelandic), heyra á utan að sér (Icelandic), frétta á utan að sér (Icelandic), enterarse por radio macuto (Spanish), oír decir (Spanish), höra via djungeltrumman (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-hear_through_the_grapevine-en-verb-dJA9xjWU Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for hear through the grapevine meaning in English (3.9kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "From the Grapevine, a telegraph line that ran from Placerville, California, to Virginia City, Nevada, beginning in 1859, and that was loosely strung from trees so that it curled like the vines of California grapes. In 1861 it was replaced by the Pacific Telegraph, which was strung from poles, and during the American Civil War \"grapevine telegraph\" became proverbialized to refer to poor and rumor-prone communications in areas cut off by the war.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "hears through the grapevine",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "hearing through the grapevine",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "heard through the grapevine",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "heard through the grapevine",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "hear<,,heard> through the grapevine"
      },
      "expansion": "hear through the grapevine (third-person singular simple present hears through the grapevine, present participle hearing through the grapevine, simple past and past participle heard through the grapevine)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1966, Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong, I Heard It Through the Grapevine",
          "text": "I heard it through the grapevine / Not much longer would you be mine",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "I heard through the grapevine that she likes him."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To hear rumors; to learn through hearsay."
      ],
      "id": "en-hear_through_the_grapevine-en-verb-dJA9xjWU",
      "links": [
        [
          "rumor",
          "rumor"
        ],
        [
          "hearsay",
          "hearsay"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To hear rumors; to learn through hearsay."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "hear on the grapevine"
        },
        {
          "word": "hear on the bush telegraph"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "learn through rumors",
          "word": "kuulla puskaradiosta"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "learn through rumors",
          "word": "über die Buschtrommel hören"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "learn through rumors",
          "word": "über die Buschtrommeln hören"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "learn through rumors",
          "word": "durch die Buschtrommel hören"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "learn through rumors",
          "word": "durch die Buschtrommeln hören"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "learn through rumors",
          "word": "die Nachricht sprach sich herum"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "learn through rumors",
          "word": "ich hab so was läuten hören"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "learn through rumors",
          "word": "über die Urwaldtrommel hören"
        },
        {
          "code": "is",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "sense": "learn through rumors",
          "word": "heyra á skotspónum"
        },
        {
          "code": "is",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "sense": "learn through rumors",
          "word": "frétta á skotspónum"
        },
        {
          "code": "is",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "sense": "learn through rumors",
          "word": "heyra á utan að sér"
        },
        {
          "code": "is",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "sense": "learn through rumors",
          "word": "frétta á utan að sér"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "learn through rumors",
          "word": "enterarse por radio macuto"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "learn through rumors",
          "word": "oír decir"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "learn through rumors",
          "word": "höra via djungeltrumman"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-hear through the grapevine.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d6/En-au-hear_through_the_grapevine.ogg/En-au-hear_through_the_grapevine.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/En-au-hear_through_the_grapevine.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hear through the grapevine"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "From the Grapevine, a telegraph line that ran from Placerville, California, to Virginia City, Nevada, beginning in 1859, and that was loosely strung from trees so that it curled like the vines of California grapes. In 1861 it was replaced by the Pacific Telegraph, which was strung from poles, and during the American Civil War \"grapevine telegraph\" became proverbialized to refer to poor and rumor-prone communications in areas cut off by the war.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "hears through the grapevine",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "hearing through the grapevine",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "heard through the grapevine",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "heard through the grapevine",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "hear<,,heard> through the grapevine"
      },
      "expansion": "hear through the grapevine (third-person singular simple present hears through the grapevine, present participle hearing through the grapevine, simple past and past participle heard through the grapevine)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1966, Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong, I Heard It Through the Grapevine",
          "text": "I heard it through the grapevine / Not much longer would you be mine",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "I heard through the grapevine that she likes him."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To hear rumors; to learn through hearsay."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "rumor",
          "rumor"
        ],
        [
          "hearsay",
          "hearsay"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To hear rumors; to learn through hearsay."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-hear through the grapevine.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d6/En-au-hear_through_the_grapevine.ogg/En-au-hear_through_the_grapevine.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/En-au-hear_through_the_grapevine.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "hear on the grapevine"
    },
    {
      "word": "hear on the bush telegraph"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "learn through rumors",
      "word": "kuulla puskaradiosta"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "learn through rumors",
      "word": "über die Buschtrommel hören"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "learn through rumors",
      "word": "über die Buschtrommeln hören"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "learn through rumors",
      "word": "durch die Buschtrommel hören"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "learn through rumors",
      "word": "durch die Buschtrommeln hören"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "learn through rumors",
      "word": "die Nachricht sprach sich herum"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "learn through rumors",
      "word": "ich hab so was läuten hören"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "learn through rumors",
      "word": "über die Urwaldtrommel hören"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "learn through rumors",
      "word": "heyra á skotspónum"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "learn through rumors",
      "word": "frétta á skotspónum"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "learn through rumors",
      "word": "heyra á utan að sér"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "learn through rumors",
      "word": "frétta á utan að sér"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "learn through rumors",
      "word": "enterarse por radio macuto"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "learn through rumors",
      "word": "oír decir"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "learn through rumors",
      "word": "höra via djungeltrumman"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hear through the grapevine"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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