Shroud

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aÊŠd

Origin

Old English scrūd, cognate with Old Norse skrúð ("the shrouds of a ship") ( >

Danish, Norwegian skrud ("splendid attire")).

Full definition of shroud

Noun

1. That which clothes, covers, conceals, or protects; a garment.
• Sandysswaddled, as new born, in sable shrouds
2. Especially, the dress for the dead; a winding sheet.
• Shakespearea dead man in his shroud
3. That which covers or shelters like a shroud.
• ByronJura 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.
• ChapmanThe shroud to which he won
  His fair-eyed oxen.
• Withalsa vault, or shroud, as under a church
5. The branching top of a tree; foliage.
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.

Verb

1. To cover with a shroud.
• Francis BaconThe 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 RaleighOne of these trees, with all his young ones, may shroud four hundred horsemen.
• DrydenSome tempest rise,
  And blow out all the stars that light the skies,
  To shroud my shame.
3. To take shelter or harbour.
• MiltonIf your stray attendance be yet lodged,
  Or shroud within these limits.