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lose the thread

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lose the thread (of something)

to not be able to understand what someone is saying because you are not giving it all your attention Jeb wasn't listening at all and lost the thread of what his father was saying.

See also: lose, thread

lose the thread

to stop understanding something someone says or something you are reading because it is too complicated or because you cannot concentrate When he started quoting Martin Luther King, I completely lost the thread of his argument.

See also: lose, thread

lose the thread

Cease to follow the sense of what is said. For example, It was such a long story that I soon lost the thread. This expression uses thread in the sense of "something that connects the various points of a narrative." [Mid-1900s]

See also: lose, thread