sew
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English[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From Middle English sewen, seowen, sowen, from Old English sīwian, sēowian, sēowan (“to sew, mend, patch, knit together, link, unite”), from Proto-Germanic *siwjaną (“to sew”), from Proto-Indo-European *sīw- (“to sew”), *syuh₁-. Cognate with Scots sew (“to sew”), North Frisian saie, sei (“to sew”), Saterland Frisian säie (“to sew”), Danish sy, Polish szyć, Russian шить (šitʹ), Swedish sy, Latin suō, Sanskrit सीव्यति (sī́vyati). Related to seam.
Pronunciation[edit]
- (UK) IPA(key): /səʊ/
- (US) IPA(key): /soʊ/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -əʊ
- Homophones: so, soh, sow (sense 2)
Verb[edit]
sew (third-person singular simple present sews, present participle sewing, simple past sewed, past participle sewn or sewed or (obsolete) sewen)
- (transitive) To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through (pieces of fabric) in order to join them together.
- Balls were first made of grass or leaves held together by strings, and later of pieces of animal skin sewn together and stuffed with feathers or hay.
- "Kate Spade, Whose Handbags Carried Women Into Adulthood, Is Dead at 55" by Jonah Engel Bromwich, Vanessa Friedman and Matthew Schneier, The New York Times (2018)
- She took the label, which originally had been on the inside of the bag, and sewed it to the outside.
- (intransitive) To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through pieces of fabric in order to join them together.
- (transitive) To enclose by sewing.
- to sew money into a bag
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
(transitive) use a needle
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(intransitive) use a needle
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Etymology 2[edit]
Related to sewer (“a drain”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
sew (third-person singular simple present sews, present participle sewing, simple past and past participle sewed)
- (obsolete, transitive) To drain the water from.
- 1573, Thomas Tusser, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie[1], volume 8, page 40:
- Now geld with the gelder the ram and the bul, / sew ponds, amend dammes, and sel webster thy wul
- 1713, Roger North, A discourse of fish and fish-ponds[3]:
- If the Bank of a Pond sews, it will preserve the Fish in Frost; the Reason, as I imagine, is, because where the Water sews out, the Air will bubble in, which relieves the Fish; or perhaps it might put the Water into some Degree of Motion.
- (nautical) Of a ship, to be grounded.
- 1962, Theory and Practice of Seamanship[4], page 236:
- The upward reaction of the keel blocks may be considered as a negative weight in a moment calculation, producing a decrease in the ship's stability, and it is most important that the vessel remains stable until she takes the blocks along the full length of her keel, i.e. when she is sewed, for until this moment the side shores cannot be successfully rigged.
- 2008, William Henry Smyth, The Sailor's Word[5]:
- A ship resting upon the ground, where the water has fallen, so as to afford no hope of floating until lightened, or the return tide floats her, is said to be sewed, by as much as the difference between the surface of the water, and the ship's floating-mark.
Anagrams[edit]
Central Kurdish[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- سێو (sêw)
Noun[edit]
sew (sew)
Middle English[edit]
Noun[edit]
sew
- Alternative form of sowe
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Nautical
- English irregular verbs
- English verbs with weak preterite but strong past participle
- en:Sewing
- Central Kurdish lemmas
- Central Kurdish nouns
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
