lose the thread

Related to lose the thread: lose the plot, lost thread

lose the thread

To stop understanding or following something, such as an explanation, because one has become distracted or confused. Sorry, can you back up? I lost the thread when you started talking about genes. I think this writer is trying to intentionally make us lose the thread so that the story becomes disorienting.
See also: lose, thread
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

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
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

lose the (or your) thread

be unable to follow what someone is saying or remember what you are going to say next.
See also: lose, thread
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • lose the drift (of something)
  • lose the drift/thread of something
  • when (one's) back is turned
  • when one's back is turned
  • when your back is turned
  • see the light
  • see the light, to
  • familiarize
  • familiarize (someone or oneself) with (something)
  • familiarize with
References in periodicals archive
This led him to lose the thread of a conversation in a way that people who did not know him could misinterpret for evasiveness.
I start looking at things behind them, which is off-putting because I lose the thread of what I want to say and that throws them, too.
Englund does, however, tend to lose the thread of rational thought and to drift in a sea of footnotes, e.g., n.
And that if you lose the thread of this intimacy, both your soul and your whole world might subsist forever in some desert-like state of ontological impoverishment.
In addition to his bravura style and interesting authorial choices (Stephenson tells each of his narratives in the present tense, regardless of when they occur chronologically), the book is so tightly plotted that you never lose the thread.
Val McDermid has been a journalist for a long time and knows how to tell a story and how to give all the facts but never to lose the thread of the story or to become boring.
When humanity itself becomes threatened with an easy faith, when we give a wink to all genuine value, when we lose the thread of "the umbilical bond that binds it (us) always to Being" (p.
It is sometimes difficult not to lose the thread, because the author provides so many details.
The Torch Theatre Company production, directed by Peter Doran, obviously has a strong focus on rugby and those not au fait with the sport may lose the thread at times.
Repeat yourself or lose the thread of conversation; Have problems thinking and reasoning; Feel anxious, depressed or angry about your forgetfulness; Find other people start to comment on your forgetfulness; Feel confused even when in a familiar environment.
I suspect Benedict, known of late to lose the thread of conversations, may be suffering from a form of senility.
If you let stars in your eyes get the better of you, you lose the thread of why you were there in the first place.