Sheaf

Pronunciation

• enPR: shÄ“f, IPA: /ʃiːf/
• Rhymes: -iːf

Origin

From Old English sceaf, from Proto-Germanic. Akin to German Schaub, Old Norse skauf ("a fox's tail"). Compare Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌿𐍆𐍄 (skuft, "hair of the head"), German Schopf ("tuft"), Albanian çup ("without tail, maimed").

Full definition of sheaf

Noun

1. A quantity of the stalks and ears of wheat, rye, or other grain, bound together; a bundle of grain or straw.
• 1593, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act V, Scene III, line 70:O, let me teach you how to knit again
  This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf,
  These broken limbs again into one body.
• unknown date John Dryden:The reaper fills his greedy hands,
  And binds the golden sheaves in brittle bands.
2. Any collection of things bound together; a bundle.a sheaf of paper
3. A bundle of arrows sufficient to fill a quiver, or the allowance of each archer.
• unknown date John Dryden:The sheaf of arrows shook and rattled in the case.
4. A quantity of arrows, usually twenty-four.
• 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 34:Arrows were anciently made of reeds, afterwards of cornel wood, and occasionally of every species of wood: but according to Roger Ascham, ash was best; arrows were reckoned by sheaves, a sheaf consisted of twenty-four arrows.
5. (mechanical) A sheave.
6. (mathematics) An abstract construct in topology that associates data to the open sets of a topological space, together with well-defined restrictions from larger to smaller open sets, subject to the condition that compatible data on overlapping open sets corresponds, via the restrictions, to a unique datum on the union of the open sets.

Verb

1. (transitive) To gather and bind into a sheaf; to make into sheaves; as, to sheaf wheat.
2. (intransitive) To collect and bind cut grain, or the like; to make sheaves.
• 1599, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act III, Scene II, line 107:They that reap must sheaf and bind; Then to cart with Rosalind.