tendril

From Middle French tendrillon (“bud, shoot, cartilage”), perhaps a diminutive of tendron (“cartilage”), from Old French tendre (“soft”) (see tender (adj.)), or else from Latin tendere (“to stretch, extend”) (see tender (v.)).

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛn.dɹəl/

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tendril (plural tendrils)

1. (botany) A thin, spirally coiling stem that attaches a plant to its support.
2. (zoology) A hair-like tentacle.

tendril (not comparable)

1. Having the shape or properties of a tendril; thin and coiling; entwining.
   • 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 275:

     Kissing the tendril fingers - at first because Mina, its mother, did not - but later with a rapture begot by its breath on her breast.

• trindle