to follow the thread
1
4.8
- phrasal verb
:
seguir el hilo
- I followed the thread in Pharyngula and just could not believe that people really took it seriously.
Examples
-
Follow the thread of your anger and see if you can find its root.
Blog text (31) -
I'm sure you've been following the thread and you certainly realize that 'impose' is liberaldem's word.
Blog text (7) -
And, "Pretty Little Liars" is getting more complicated, but I can follow the thread since I watch religiously!
Blog text (3) -
You misunderstand so much that I think you mustn't have been following the threads closely.
Blog text (8) -
If you're following the thread, you'll see that Berferd is here simply to disrupt.
Blog text (24) -
Another subpersona struggled to follow the thread of Stan's rambling reminiscence.
Fiction book (1990) -
Although the lecture was complex, I was able to follow the thread of the speaker's main arguments.
-
She found it challenging to follow the thread during the heated debate, but she grasped the essential points.
-
In the dense novel, it helped to take notes to follow the thread of the plot effectively.
Synonyms
560
1.4
To understand what someone says or explains
4
4.5
To understand the main idea without knowing every detail
Antonyms
How Convinced
Surface Forms
Morphology
Both constituents directly support the idiomatic meaning: 'follow' = track/understand and 'thread' = a line of thought or discussion, so combining them yields 'track the main argument.' The metaphor of a 'thread' as a continuous line of discourse is common cross-linguistically and follows normal English composition patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the words would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Follow the thread comes from a simple sewing image: if you follow a single thread through cloth or a tangled ball, it shows you the right path. So, the phrase means 'to understand or keep track of the main idea' in a story, talk, or explanation.