sleave
English
Etymology
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “From Chambers 1908; needs cleanup.”) Compare Danish slöife, a loose knot, Swedish slejf (“a knot of ribbon”), German Schleife (“a loop”).
Pronunciation
Verb
sleave (third-person singular simple present sleaves, present participle sleaving, simple past and past participle sleaved)
Synonyms
Noun
sleave (plural sleaves)
- The knotted or entangled part of silk or thread.
- Silk not yet twisted; floss.
- c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
- Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care.
References
- “sleave”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.