sheathe
/ʃið/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.82 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
Of an animal: to draw back or retract (a body part) into the body, such as claws into a paw.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "Sheath your Dagger: / Be angry when you will, it ſhall haue ſcope: […]"
- "Thy Chamber vvith Ambroſiall odors breatheth, / Nevv loues and true loues vnto them that entreateth, / And furious Mars made milde his Faulcheon ſheatheth / At thy delicious aſpect: […]"
- "At Sight of thee, the Villain ſheaths his Sword, / Nor ſcales the Wall, to ſteal the wealthy Hoard."
- "Be aware of the smiling enemy, that openly sheatheth his weapon, / But mingleth poison in secret with the sacred salt of hospitality."
- "Ke okakla foo le, obon oke-woo. If thy knife cut thee thou sheathest it. N.B.—Meaning thou dost not cast it away."
- "A chearful heart does good like a medicine, but envy corrodes like a poiſon; it is ſo ſharp, that it cuts the body which ſheathes it."
Etymology
From Late Middle English shethen (“to put (a sword or knife) into a sheath, sheathe; to provide with a sheath; (figuratively) to have sexual intercourse”) [and other forms], then: * probably from Old English *scēaþian; or * possibly from Middle English sheth, shethe (“holder for a sword, knife, etc., scabbard, sheath”) [and other forms] + -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs). Sheth(e) is derived from Old English sċēaþ (“sheath”), from Proto-West Germanic *skaiþiju, from Proto-Germanic *skaiþiz (“sheath; covering”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to dissect, split”) (possibly from the notion of a split stick with a sword inserted).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ʃið/
- British English: /ʃiːð/
Usage
Inflected Forms
sheathes (present, singular)
sheathing (participle, present)
sheathed (participle, past)
sheathed (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
sheathed (first person, past)
sheathest (archaic, present)
sheathed (past, second person)
sheathedst (archaic, past)
sheatheth (archaic, present)
sheathed (past, singular)