shroud

English

Etymology

From Old English scrūd, from Proto-Germanic *skrūdą. Cognate with Old Norse skrúð (“the shrouds of a ship”) ( > Danish, Norwegian skrud (“splendid attire”)).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aʊd

Noun

shroud (plural shrouds)

1. That which clothes, covers, conceals, or protects; a garment.
   • Sandys

     swaddled, as new born, in sable shrouds

2. Especially, the dress for the dead; a winding sheet.
   • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, volume 3, chapter 2

     Yet let us goǃ England is in her shroud - we may not enchain ourselves to a corpse.

   • Shakespeare

     a dead man in his shroud

3. That which covers or shelters like a shroud.
   • Byron

     Jura answers through her misty shroud.

4. A covered place used as a retreat or shelter, as a cave or den; also, a vault or crypt.
   • Chapman

     The shroud to which he won / His fair-eyed oxen.

   • Withals

     a vault, or shroud, as under a church

5. The branching top of a tree; foliage.
   • 1611, King James Bible, “xxxi.iii”, in Ezekiel^[1], Barker edition:

     Behold, the Assyrian was a Cedar in Lebanon with faire branches, and with a shadowing shrowd, and of an hie stature, and his top was among the thicke boughes.

6. (nautical) A rope or cable serving to support the mast sideways.
   • See also Wikipedia article on Shroud (sailing)
7. One of the two annular plates at the periphery of a water wheel, which form the sides of the buckets; a shroud plate.

Synonyms

• sindon

Translations

dress for the dead

• Arabic: کفن‎ m (kafan)
• Armenian: սավան (hy) (savan), պատան (hy) (patan)
• Azeri: kəfən
• Basque: hiljantzi
• Dutch: lijkwade (nl) f, lijkgewaad (nl) f, doodskleed n, lijkdoek m
• Finnish: käärinliina (fi), kuolinvaate
• French: linceul (fr) m, suaire (fr) m
• German: Leichentuch n
• Greek: σάβανο (el) n (sávano)
• Hungarian: halotti lepel
• Ilocano: talakbong
• Indonesian: kafan (id)
• Irish: taiséadach m, taisléine f
• Italian: sudario (it) m
• Kumyk: гебин (gebin)
• Kurdish: kefen‎ (ku)

• Latin: brandeum n
• Malay: kafan
• Maori: puraku, purutapu
• Middle English: shroud
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: svøp n, likskjorte m, f, liksvøp n

• Persian: کفن‎ (fa) (kefen)
• Polish: całun (pl) m
• Portuguese: mortalha (pt) f, sudário (pt) m
• Russian: са́ван (ru) m (sávan), пелена́ (ru) f (pelená), покро́в (ru) m (pokróv)
• Scottish Gaelic: anart-bàis m
• Somali: kafan
• Spanish: sudario m, mortaja (es) f
• Swedish: svepning (sv) c
• Tagalog: lalab
• Turkish: kefen (tr)

mast support

• Danish: vant
• Dutch: want (nl) n
• Finnish: vantti (fi)
• French: hauban (fr) m
• German: Want (de) f, n
• Hungarian: vantni
• Irish: scriúta m
• Italian: sartia

• Manx: aarey f
• Maori: waewae
• Norwegian: vant (no)
• Polish: wanta (pl) f
• Portuguese: brandal m
• Russian: ва́нты m pl (vánty)
• Spanish: obenquillo m
• Swedish: vant (sv)

Verb

shroud (third-person singular simple present shrouds, present participle shrouding, simple past and past participle shrouded)

1. To cover with a shroud.
   • Francis Bacon

     The ancient Egyptian mummies were shrouded in a number of folds of linen besmeared with gums.

2. To conceal or hide from view, as if by a shroud.

   The details of the plot were shrouded in mystery.

   The truth behind their weekend retreat was shrouded in obscurity.

   • Sir Walter Raleigh

     One of these trees, with all his young ones, may shroud four hundred horsemen.

   • Dryden

     Some tempest rise, / And blow out all the stars that light the skies, / To shroud my shame.

3. To take shelter or harbour.
   • Milton

     If your stray attendance be yet lodged, / Or shroud within these limits.