sheaf

[ sheef ]
See synonyms for sheaf on Thesaurus.com
noun,plural sheaves.
  1. one of the bundles in which cereal plants, as wheat, rye, etc., are bound after reaping.

  2. any bundle, cluster, or collection: a sheaf of papers.

verb (used with object)
  1. to bind (something) into a sheaf or sheaves.

Origin of sheaf

1
before 900; Middle English shefe (noun), Old English schēaf; cognate with Dutch schoof sheaf, German Schaub wisp of straw, Old Norse skauf tail of a fox

Other words from sheaf

  • sheaflike, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use sheaf in a sentence

  • Of every twenty sheafs of wooden staves and arrow heads, for sale, one halfpenny.

    Chronicles of London Bridge | Richard Thompson
  • The golden corn-sheafs—the old dark-alleyed orchards, and the high streets of antique towns.

    Uncle Silas | J. S. LeFanu
  • The pyre to the right was somewhat less high, but was also ornamented with green branches besides sheafs of wheat.

    The Gold Sickle | Eugne Sue
  • How pleasant it was to see white faces in the fields, to gaze on the waving corn, and on the martial rows of wheat-sheafs!

    Pictures of Southern Life | William Howard Russell
  • But she crept up to him in the hole he had made underneath the great, brown sheafs of wood, and squeezed herself down by him.

    Half a Life-time Ago | Elizabeth Gaskell

British Dictionary definitions for sheaf

sheaf

/ (ʃiːf) /


nounplural sheaves (ʃiːvz)
  1. a bundle of reaped but unthreshed corn tied with one or two bonds

  2. a bundle of objects tied together

  1. the arrows contained in a quiver

verb
  1. (tr) to bind or tie into a sheaf

Origin of sheaf

1
Old English sceaf, related to Old High German skoub sheaf, Old Norse skauf tail, Gothic skuft tuft of hair

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012