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sheaf

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: sheave

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English scheef, from Old English sċēaf, from Proto-West Germanic *skaub, from Proto-Germanic *skauba- (“sheaf”).

Cognates
Akin to West Frisian skeaf (“sheaf”), Dutch schoof (“sheaf”), German Schaub, Old Norse skauf (“a fox's tail”). Compare further Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌿𐍆𐍄 (skuft, “hair of the head”), German Schopf (“tuft”).

Pronunciation

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  • enPR: shēf, IPA(key): /ʃiːf/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːf
Sheaves

Noun

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sheaf (plural sheaves or sheafs)

  2. A quantity of the stalks and ears of wheat, rye, or other grain, bound together; a bundle of grain or straw.
    Synonym: reap
    • c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [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.
    • 1697, Virgil, “The First Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 60, lines 429–430:
      Ev’n while the Reaper fills his greedy hands, / And binds the golden Sheafs in brittle bands
  3. Any collection of things bound together.
    Synonym: bundle
    a sheaf of paper
    • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:
      Together the two men march up the aisle and mount the dais, and while Muspole shakes hands with the chairman and his lady, the major draws a sheaf of notes from a briefcase and lays them on the table.
  4. A bundle of arrows sufficient to fill a quiver, or the allowance of each archer.
    • 1700, John Dryden, Palamon and Arcite:
      The sheaf of arrows shook, and rattled in the case.
  5. 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.
  6. (mechanical) A sheave.
  7. (mathematics) An abstract construct in topology that associates data to the open sets of a topological space (i.e. a presheaf) in such a way so as to make the local and global data compatible, generalizing the situation of functions, fiber bundles, manifold structure, etc. on a topological space. Formally, a presheaf whose sections are, in a technical sense, uniquely determined by their restrictions onto smaller sets: that is, given an open cover of :
    1. If two sections over agree under restriction to every , then the sections are the same.
    2. Given a family of sections such that all pairs agree under restriction to , there is a (unique) section over whose restriction to is .

Derived terms

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Translations

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Translations to be checked

Verb

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sheaf (third-person singular simple present sheafs, present participle sheafing, simple past and past participle sheafed)

  1. (transitive) To gather and bind into a sheaf; to make into sheaves
    to sheaf wheat
  2. (intransitive) To collect and bind cut grain, or the like; to make sheaves.

Anagrams

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