shroud

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃɹaʊd/
• Rhymes: -aʊd

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

Etymology 1

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

Noun

shroud (plural shrouds)

1. That which clothes, covers, conceals, or protects; a garment.
   • 1636, George Sandys, Paraphrase upon the Psalms and Hymns dispersed throughout the Old and New Testaments

     swaddled, as new born, in sable shrouds

   • 2019 April 25, Samanth Subramanian, “Hand dryers v paper towels: the surprisingly dirty fight for the right to dry your hands”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Every time we came a research area, we had to pause while the scientists threw grey shrouds over prototypes that I wasn’t to see.

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.

   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene i]:

     a dead man in his shroud

3. That which covers or shelters like a shroud.
   • 1812–1818, Lord Byron, “(please specify |canto=I to IV)”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: Printed for John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], OCLC 22697011, (please specify the stanza number):

     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.
   • 1618, George Chapman, Homeric Hymns

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

   • 1554, John Withals, A Dictionarie in English and Latine

     a vault, or shroud, as under a church

5. (nautical) One of a set of ropes or cables (rigging) attaching a mast to the sides of a vessel or to another anchor point, serving to support the mast sideways; such rigging collectively.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, OCLC 1167497017:

     Then - a shock of water, a wild rush of boiling foam, and I was clinging for my life to the shroud, ay, swept straight out from it like a flag in a gale.

6. One of the two annular plates at the periphery of a water wheel, which form the sides of the buckets; a shroud plate.
7. (astronautics) A streamlined protective covering used to protect the payload during a rocket-powered launch.

Synonyms

• sindon

Translations

a garment

• French: voile (fr) m

dress for the dead

• Arabic: كفن‎ m (kafan)
• Armenian: սավան (hy) (savan), պատան (hy) (patan)
• Azerbaijani: kəfən
• Basque: hiljantzi
• Bulgarian: саван (bg) m (savan), покров m (pokrov)
• Dutch: lijkwade (nl) f, lijkgewaad (nl) f, doodskleed (nl) n, lijkdoek m
• Finnish: käärinliina (fi), kuolinvaate
• French: linceul (fr) m, suaire (fr) m
• German: Grabtuch (de) n, Leichentuch (de) n
• Greek: σάβανο (el) n (sávano)

  Ancient Greek: σπεῖρον n (speîron)

• Hebrew: תַּכְרִיךְ‎ (he) m (tachrích)
• Hungarian: halotti lepel
• Ilocano: talakbong
• Indonesian: kafan (id)
• Irish: taiséadach m, taisléine f
• Italian: sudario (it) m, sindone (it) f
• Kumyk: гебин (gebin)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: kefen (ku)

• Ladino: mortaja
• Latin: brandeum n
• Malay: kafan
• Maltese: kefen m
• Maori: puraku, purutapu
• Middle English: shroud
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: svøp n, likskjorte m or 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 (es) m, mortaja (es) f
• Swedish: svepning (sv) c
• Tagalog: lalab
• Turkish: kefen (tr)
• Vietnamese: vải liệm
• Westrobothnian: bḷåi f

mast support

• Bulgarian: ванта f (vanta)
• Danish: vant (da)
• Dutch: want (nl) n
• Finnish: vantti (fi)
• French: hauban (fr) m
• German: Want (de) f or n
• Hebrew: רִכְסָה‎ (he) f (rikhsah), וַנְטָה‎ (he) f (vantah), יֶתֶר צַד‎ (he) m (yeter tsad)
• Hungarian: vantni
• Irish: scriúta m
• Italian: sartia (it)
• Manx: aarey f
• Maori: waewae
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: vant (no) n

  Nynorsk: vant n

• Polish: wanta (pl) f
• Portuguese: brandal m
• Russian: ва́нты m pl (vánty)
• Scottish Gaelic: fàradh m (collectively)
• Spanish: obenquillo m
• Swedish: vant (sv)

a streamlined protective covering

• Bulgarian: кожух (bg) (kožuh)
• French: , coiffe (fr) f

Etymology 2

From Middle English schrouden (> Anglo-Latin scrudāre), from Middle English schroud (“shroud”) (see above).

Verb

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

1. To cover with a shroud.
   • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], OCLC 1044372886:

     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.

   • 1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], OCLC 37026674, (please specify |book=1 to 5):

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

   • 1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour […]‎^[2], London: Printed by J.M. for H. Herringman, published 1667, Act III, scene ii, page 30:

     Moon ſlip behind ſome Cloud, ſome Tempeſt riſe / And blow out all the Stars that light the Skies, / To ſhrowd my ſhame.

3. To take shelter or harbour.
   • 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], H[enry] Lawes, editor, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, OCLC 228715864; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, OCLC 1113942837:

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

Translations

to cover with a shroud

• Vietnamese: liệm (vi)

to veil or conceal

• Bulgarian: обвивам (bg) (obvivam), покривам (bg) (pokrivam)
• Italian: velare (it), celare (it)

Etymology 3

Variant of shred.

Noun

shroud (plural shrouds)

1. The branching top of a tree; foliage.
   • 1611, King James Version, “xxxi.iii”, in Ezekiel‎^[3], 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.

Verb

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

1. (transitive, UK, dialect) To lop the branches from (a tree).

   Synonym: shrood

References

• Shroud (sailing) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• shroud in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• shroud at OneLook Dictionary Search

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Middle English

Alternative forms

• shroude, shroute, sheroude, shrude, shrute
• scrude, sroude, srout, srud, sruð, ssroud (early)

Etymology

From Old English sċrūd, from Proto-Germanic *skrūdą.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃruːd/

Noun

shroud (plural shroudes)

1. garment, priestly vestment

Descendants

• English: shroud
• Yola: shrude

References

• “shrǒud, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.