Meaning & use
heard through the grapevine
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Meaning
phraseidiominformal
Learned some news or gossip informally from other people passing it along rather than from an official source.
Grammar: Past form of the idiom hear something through the grapevine, which can also be used in other tenses: I hear, I heard.
Patterns
- hear something through the grapevine
- heard through the grapevine that something
I heard through the grapevine that the manager is leaving next month.
She heard through the grapevine that the neighbors were moving.
We heard through the grapevine that the school might close.
Common combinations
- heard it through the grapevine
- I heard it through the grapevine that you got a promotion.
- news travels on the grapevine
- News travels fast on the office grapevine.
- office grapevine
- The office grapevine was buzzing about the merger.
- according to the grapevine
- According to the grapevine, they are getting married.
Synonyms and how they differ
- heard on the rumor mill
- This is similar but suggests more doubt about whether the news is true.
- heard by word of mouth
- By word of mouth is neutral and is often used for recommendations rather than gossip.
- been told unofficially
- This is more formal and does not have the playful image of gossip passing from person to person.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: heard through the grapevine or grapevine vs vineyard?
heard through the grapevine vs grapevine vs vineyard
A vineyard is a farm where grapes are grown, while the grapevine in this idiom is an informal network for passing news.
Practice
What does it mean if you heard something through the grapevine?
Choose one answer.
Through the grapevine means from informal word of mouth. An official report or the boss would be a formal source.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “heard through the grapevine”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.