Other forms: sheds, shedding
A shed is the small wooden building in a garden where the tools live. A mower, a spade, and a great many things nobody can throw away.
It is a British institution as much as a building, and the phrase a man and his shed does a lot of quiet cultural work. The word covers larger structures too, so a cattle shed and an engine shed are both sheds. There is a completely separate verb, since animals shed hair, trees shed leaves and a company sheds jobs, and shedding light on something means making it clear.
1nounshedA simple wooden building used for storage.
“The spade is in the shed.”
2verbfallTo let something fall away or be lost.
“The tree sheds its leaves early.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
To shed is to separate. Old English scēadan meant to divide, to part or to make a line between, so shedding a coat or a skin is parting company with it.
Proto-Indo-European
*skey-
Proto-Indo-European
*skeyt- — to cut, part, divide, separate
Proto-Germanic
*skaiþaną
Proto-West Germanic
*skaiþan
Old English
scēadan
Middle English
scheden
English, today
shed
Built from
From Middle English scheden, schede, from Old English scēadan, scādan (“to separate, divide, part, make a line of separation between; remove from association or companionship; distinguish, discriminate, decide, determine, appoint; shatter, shed; expound; decree; write down; differ”), from Proto-West Germanic skaiþan, from Proto-Germanic skaiþaną (compare West Frisian skiede, Dutch - and German scheiden), from Proto-Indo-European skeyt- (“to cut, part, divide, separate”), from skey-. See also Irish scian (“knife”), Lithuanian skėsti (“to spread”), skíesti (“to separate”), cu цѣдити (“to filter, strain”), Ancient Greek σχίζω (“to split”), xcl ցտեմ (“to scratch”), Sanskrit च्यति (“he cuts off”)). Related to shoad, shit, sheath.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA