sb. Also 6 -yll, -elle, 6–8 -el, 7 -ell, 8 -ill. [Origin uncertain; app. from L. tendĕre, F. tendre to stretch; in its actual form and sense only in Eng. See Note below.]
1. A slender thread-like organ or appendage of a plant (consisting of a modified stem, branch, flower-stalk, leaf, or part of a leaf), often growing in a spiral form, which stretches out and attaches itself to or twines round some other body so as to support the plant. (Distinguished from a twining stem by not bearing leaves.)
1538. Elyot, Capreolus,… the tendrell of a vyne, whiche wyndeth diuers ways, called also Pampinus.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, III. lxxxviii. 441. Litle claspers or tendrelles, wherewithal it taketh holdefast vpon hedges, trees, poles, and rayles.
1611. Cotgr., Tendron … a tendrell, or the tender branch, or sprig of a plant.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 307. Her … tresses … in wanton ringlets way’d As the Vine curles her tendrils.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1778), II. 175 (Maria). A couple of vine leaves, tied round with a tendril.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 224, Cirrus. Tendrils or claspers when young are usually put forth in a straight direction; but they presently become spiral.
1858. Carpenter, Veg. Phys., § 538. Nearly all the plants of the group are climbers, and most of them support themselves by tendrils.
b. transf. Something resembling a tendril of a plant: as, a slender branch of a vein; a curl or ringlet of hair. (Cf. also tendril-footed in 3 b.)
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 79. Sometime also seueral tendrils are communicated vnto it from the spermatical veines.
1814. Byron, Lara, II. xxi. The glossy tendrils of his raven hair.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, xliii. The dark tendrils of hair,… the rounded cheek and the pouting lips.
c. fig., esp. in reference to a ‘clinging’ affection or attachment.
1841. Emerson, Lect., Man the Reformer, Wks. (Bohn), II. 238. Inextricable seem to be the twinings and tendrils of this evil.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xxii. Her own earnest nature threw out its tendrils, and wound itself around the majestic book.
1888. S. S. Fisher, Lelia Lee, etc. (ed. 2), 72.
| Still the tendrils of desire will strongly twine about the past, | |
| And the ruin of old creeds with tender light be overcast. |
1891. T. Hardy, Tess, II. xiv. Her foolish soul sent back tendrils of yearning towards it [her father’s house].
† 2. Used to render F. tendron bud (see TENDRON) in fig. sense ‘young girl.’ Obs.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, III. ix. (1632), 554. Continually stored with young tendrels or lasses, to keepe his old-frozen limbs warme a nights.
1639. S. Du Verger, trans. Camus’ Admir. Events, 313. Hee sends this tendrell to schoole againe.
3. attrib. and Comb. a. attrib. Having or bearing tendrils, as tendril brier, hop, vine; of or belonging to a tendril, resembling or consisting of a tendril, as tendril-ring, -talon. b. objective, instrumental, parasynthetic, etc., as tendril-bearer, -climber; tendril-footed, -like adjs.
1872. Darwin, Orig. Spec., vii. (ed. 6), 196. Gradations … between simple twiners and *tendril-bearers.
c. 1711. Petiver, Gazophyl., VI. Tab. lviii. Triangular *Tendril Bryar…. A very odd Anomalous Plant.
1875. Bennett & Dyer, Sachs’ Bot., 197. A distinction is drawn between *Tendril-climbers (as Vitis) and Stem-climbers (as Phaseolus, Humulus, Convolvulus, &c.).
1848. Carpenter, Anim. Phys., 94. This group is the Barnacle tribe, forming the class CIRRHIPODA, or *tendril-footed animals.
1757. Dyer, Fleece, I. 62. The curling growth Of *tendril hops, that flaunt upon their poles.
1836–9. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., II. 146/2. The *tendril-like branches of the arteria profunda.
1791. E. Darwin, Bot. Gard., II. 150. Long horrent thorns his mossy legs surround, And *tendril-talons root him to the ground.
1743. Francis, trans. Hor., Epod., xv. 3. When round my Neck as curls the Tendril-Vine—(Loose are its Curlings, if compar’d to thine).
1896. Westm. Gaz., 20 Oct., 10/2. Framed in Romanesque *tendril work.
Hence Tendril v. (nonce-wd.) intr. to curl like a tendril; Tendrilled, -iled (-ild) a., having a tendril or tendrils (in quot. 1839 transf. curly); Tendrillferous a. [-FEROUS], bearing tendrils; Tendrilly, Tendrilous adjs., full of tendrils; resembling a tendril.
1894. Crockett, Lilac Sunbonnet, 18. Fair hair, crisping and *tendrilling over her brow.
1806. J. Galpine, Brit. Bot., § 319. Fumaria … stem climbing: petioles *tendrilled.
1822. Hortus Angl., II. 126. A[ntirrhinum] Cirrhosa. Tendriled Toad Flax.
1839. Bailey, Festus, xx. (1852), 375. Some young thing with tiny hands, And rosy cheeks, and flossy tendrilled locks.
1900. W. Wallace, in Ann. Bot., Dec., 639. A *tendriliferous liane.
1863. Holme Lee, Annie Warleigh, III. 25. A Virginian creeper twined its thousands of *tendrilly sprays up the rustic pillars.
1857. Wood, Com. Objects Sea Shore, 58. The long, curling, *tendrilous appendages … affix themselves to sea-weeds … and … anchor the egg firmly.
[Note. With tendril, cf. F. tendrillon bud, tender sprout or shoot, dim. of tendron in same sense, also fig. a ‘bud,’ a young girl; also cartilage; which Hatz.-Darm. refer to tendre adj. tender. But Paré (16th c.) took tendron as synonymous with capréole tendril, clasper (‘La vigne par ses tendrons ou capréoles tortues einbrasse toutes choses’), and L. capreolus (rendered by Elyot, 1538 ‘tendrell’) was by R. Estienne, 1536, glossed by tendon, a deriv. of L. tendĕre, F. tendre to stretch. There was thus in 16th c. F. some confusion between tendon and tendron, which appears to have influenced the Eng. use of tendril and associated it with tendre to stretch rather than with tendre tender. See also Weekly in Trans. Philol. Soc., 1909.]
