Find the word definition

Crossword clues for sleave

The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sleave

Sleave \Sleave\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sleaved (sl[=e]vd); p. pr. & vb. n. Sleaving.] To separate, as threads; to divide, as a collection of threads; to sley; -- a weaver's term.

Sleave

Sleave \Sleave\ (sl[=e]v), n. [Cf. Dan. sl["o]if, a knot loop, Sw. slejf, G. schleife a knot, sliding knot, and E. slip, v.i.]

  1. The knotted or entangled part of silk or thread.

  2. Silk not yet twisted; floss; -- called also sleave silk.

    Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care.
    --Shak.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
sleave

"to separate or divide" (threads, strands, fibers), Old English -slæfan, from stem of -slifan "to separate, split, cleave," from Proto-Germanic *slifanan, perhaps related to the root of slip (v.). Compare German Schleife "a loop, knot, noose." Related: Sleaved; sleaving. As a noun, "knotted, tangled silk or thread," 1590s, from the verb; this is the word in Shakespeare's rauel'd Sleeue of Care ("Macbeth").

Wiktionary
sleave

n. 1 The knotted or entangled part of silk or thread. 2 Silk not yet twisted; floss. vb. (context weaving English) To separate, as threads; to divide, as a collection of threads.

Usage examples of "sleave".

I forget how the subject arose, but I remember Jeeves once saying that sleep knits up the ravelled sleave of care.