wikipedia|dab=sheaf
English

Pronunciation
audio|en-us-sheaf.ogg|Audio (US)

Etymology
OE. sceaf

Noun
en-noun|pl=sheaves

1. A quantity of the stalks and ears of wheat, rye, or other grain, bound together; a bundle of grain or straw.

#:Quotations
#:*1593: O, let me teach you how to knit again This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf, These broken limbs again into one body. — William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act V, Scene III, line 70.
#:*The reaper fills his greedy hands, And binds the golden sheaves in brittle bands. -- Dryden.

1. Any collection of things bound together; a bundle.

#:a sheaf of paper

1. A bundle of arrows sufficient to fill a quiver, or the allowance of each archer.

#:Quotations
#:*The sheaf of arrows shook and rattled in the case. -- Dryden.

1. (unit) A quantity of arrows, usually twenty-four.

#:Quotations
#:*1786: 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. — Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 34.

1. (Mechanical) A sheave.
2. 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. ^{W:Sheaf (mathematics)|W}

Translations
trans-top|bundle of grain or straw
Czech: snop m
trans-mid
trans-bottom

checktrans-top
German: Garbe f (1)
Hebrew: he-translation|ע�ר|omer
Korean: � (dan), �� (dabar, -l)
Scottish: Stook (Old Scottish word. Needs to be confirmed.)

Russian: п��ок
trans-bottom

Verb
to sheaf

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.

#:Quotations
#: 1599: They that reap must sheaf and bind; Then to cart with Rosalind. — William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act III, Scene II, line 107.

Category:Units of measure
Category:English nouns with irregular plurals

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vi:sheaf

• 2007-12-23 11:36 - Daniel Polansky - /* Translations */

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