English edit

Etymology 1 edit

A princely Mughal sabre with a jewelled sheath (sense 1) or scabbard.
A diagram showing electrical wires with sheaths (sense 4) of different colours.
CNN journalist Campbell Brown in a sheath dress (sense 6).

From Middle English sheth, shethe (holder for a sword, knife, etc., scabbard, sheath) [and other forms], from Old English sċēaþ (sheath),[1] from Proto-West Germanic *skaiþiju, from Proto-Germanic *skaiþiz (sheath; covering), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (to dissect, split) (possibly from the notion of a split stick with a sword inserted).

The English word is cognate with Danish skede, Dutch schede, Icelandic skeið, German Scheide, Low German scheed, Norwegian skjede.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

sheath (plural sheaths)

  1. A holster for a sword; a scabbard.
  2. (by extension) Anything that has a similar shape to a scabbard that is used to hold an object that is longer than it is wide.
    Synonyms: case, casing, cover, covering, envelope
  3. (botany) The base of a leaf when sheathing or investing a branch or stem, as in grasses.
  4. (electrical engineering) The insulating outer cover of an electrical cable.
  5. (entomology) One of the elytra of an insect.
  6. (fashion) A tight-fitting dress.
  7. (zoology) The foreskin of certain animals (for example, dogs and horses).
  8. (Britain, informal) A condom.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:condom
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Translations edit

Etymology 2 edit

A variant of sheathe.

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

sheath (third-person singular simple present sheaths, present participle sheathing, simple past and past participle sheathed)

  1. Alternative spelling of sheathe
    Antonym: unsheath
Derived terms edit

References edit

  1. ^ shēth(e, n.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007; “sheath, n.1”, in OED Online  , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1914; “sheath, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading edit

Anagrams edit