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sheath

UK/ʃiːθ/US/ʃiθ/
nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,679 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: sheaths

A sheath is the close-fitting cover for a blade. Draw it from the sheath, a leather sheath, return the sword to its sheath.

It protects the edge and the person carrying it in equal measure. The word also names a close-fitting dress and, in biology, any covering layer, such as the myelin sheath round a nerve. The verb is sheathe, with an e and a different final sound.

Unknown · CC0

Definitions of sheath

  1. 1nounsheathThe close-fitting cover for a blade.B2+

    “He slid the hunting knife back into its leather sheath.”

sheath is a cover.

Where it comes from

Old English sceath names the cover, from a Germanic root meaning to split or separate.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *skey- — to dissect, split

  2. Proto-Germanic

    *skaiþiz — sheath; covering

  3. Proto-West Germanic

    *skaiþiju

  4. Old English

    sċēaþ — sheath

  5. Middle English

    sheth

  6. English, today

    sheath

Built from

  • shethe · Middle English — holder for a sword, knife, etc., scabbard, sheath

From Middle English sheth, shethe (“holder for a sword, knife, etc., scabbard, sheath”)chethe, scǽð, scaþ, schede, schete, scheth, schethe, seaþ, seeth, seth, sethe, shæþ, shede, sheethe, sheith, (Southwest) ssethe, sseþe, (early forms) scæðe, scaþe, seaþe, from Old English sċēaþ (“sheath”), 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.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Containers & Packaging

Practise this word

sheath in the wild

  • A scabbard is a sheath for holding a sword, dagger, knife, or similar edged weapons.

    Scabbard

  • PGA is then chemically reduced and diffuses back to the bundle sheath to complete the reductive pentose phosphate cycle (RPP).

    C4 carbon fixation

  • A kosha, usually rendered "sheath", is a covering of the Atman, or Self according to Vedantic philosophy.

    Kosha

  • A sheath knife is a fixed-bladed knife that fits into a sheath, by tradition usually of leather, now often of other material such as nylon or kevlar.

    Sheath knife

  • The sheath is used to protect the knife and act as a carrier.

    Sheath knife

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.