also grape-vine, 1736, from grape + vine. Meaning "a rumor; a secret or unconventional method of spreading information" (1863) is from the use of grapevine telegraph as "secret source of information and rumor" in the American Civil War; in reference to Southerners under northern occupation but also in reference to black communities and runaway slaves.
The false reports touching rebel movements, which incessantly circulated in Nashville, brings us to the consideration of the "grapevine telegraph"--a peculiar institution of rebel generation, devised for the duplex purpose of "firing the Southern heart," and to annoy the "Yankees." It is worthy of attention, as one of the signs of the times, expressing the spirit of lying which war engenders. But it is no more than just to say that there is often so little difference between the "grapevine" and the associated press telegraph, that they might as well be identical. ["Rosecrans' Campaign with the Fourteenth Corps," Cincinnati, 1863]
实用例句
1. He'd doubtless heard rumours on the grapevine.
他无疑是听到了小道消息。
来自柯林斯例句
2. I heard about your success on the office grapevine.
我听到了办公室的传闻,说你取得了成功.
来自《简明英汉词典》
3. I had heard through the grapevine that he was quite critical of what we were doing.
我听到有传言说他对我们在做的工作非常不满。
来自柯林斯例句
4. I heard ( about ) it through [ on ] the ( neighborhood ) grapevine.
我是经 ( 附近的 ) 谣传 听到这事情的.
来自辞典例句
5. I heard through the grapevine that the minister is going to resign.
