a cloth or sheet in which a corpse is wrapped for burial.
2.
something that covers or conceals like a garment: a shroud of rain.
3.
Nautical. any of a number of taut ropes or wires converging from both sides on the head of a lower or upper mast of the outer end of a bowsprit to steady it against lateral sway: a part of the standing rigging.
4.
Also called shroud line.Aeronautics. any of a number of suspension cords of a parachute attaching the load to the canopy.
5.
Also called shrouding.Machinery.
a.
(on a nonmetallic gear) an extended metal rim enclosing the ends of the teeth on either side.
b.
(on a water wheel) one of two rings of boards or plates enclosing the buckets at their ends.
6.
Rocketry. a cone-shaped shield that protects the payload of a launch vehicle.
–verb (used with object)
7.
to wrap or clothe for burial; enshroud.
8.
to cover; hide from view.
9.
to veil, as in obscurity or mystery: They shrouded their past lives in an effort to forget.
10.
to provide (a water wheel) with a shroud.
11.
Obsolete. to shelter.
–verb (used without object)
12.
Archaic. to take shelter.
[Origin: bef. 1000; (n.) ME; OE scrūd; c. ON skrūth; akin to shred; (v.) ME shrouden, deriv. of the n.; r. ME shriden, OE scrȳdan, deriv. of scrūd]
O.E. scrud "a garment, clothing," from W.Gmc. *skruthan, from P.Gmc. *skrud- "cut" (cf. O.N. skruð "shroud of a ship," Dan., Swed. skrud "dress, attire"), variant of *skreud- "to cut," related to O.E. screade (see shred). Meaning "cloth or sheet for burial" first attested 1570. The verb is attested from c.1300, originally "to clothe;" meaning "to hide from view, conceal" (trans.) is attested from 1412.
Shroud\ (shroud), n. [OE. shroud, shrud, schrud, AS. scr[=u]d a garment, clothing; akin to Icel. skru[eth] the shrouds of a ship, furniture of a church, a kind of stuff, Sw. skrud dress, attire, and E. shred. See Shred, and cf. Shrood.]1. That which clothes, covers, conceals, or protects; a garment. --Piers Plowman. Swaddled, as new born, in sable shrouds. --Sandys. 2. Especially, the dress for the dead; a winding sheet. "A dead man in his shroud." --Shak. 3. That which covers or shelters like a shroud. Jura answers through her misty shroud. --Byron. 4. A covered place used as a retreat or shelter, as a cave or den; also, a vault or crypt. [Obs.] The shroud to which he won His fair-eyed oxen. --Chapman. A vault, or shroud, as under a church. --Withals. 5. The branching top of a tree; foliage. [R.] The Assyrian wad a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and with a shadowing shroad. --Ezek. xxxi. 3. 6. pl. (Naut.) A set of ropes serving as stays to support the masts. The lower shrouds are secured to the sides of vessels by heavy iron bolts and are passed around the head of the lower masts. 7. (Mach.) One of the two annular plates at the periphery of a water wheel, which form the sides of the buckets; a shroud plate. Bowsprit shrouds (Naut.), ropes extending from the head of the bowsprit to the sides of the vessel. Futtock shrouds (Naut.), iron rods connecting the topmast rigging with the lower rigging, passing over the edge of the top. Shroud plate. (a) (Naut.) An iron plate extending from the dead-eyes to the ship's side. --Ham. Nav. Encyc. (b) (Mach.) A shroud. See def. 7, above.
Shroud\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Shrouded; p. pr. & vb. n. Shrouding.] [Cf. AS. scr?dan. See Shroud, n.]1. To cover with a shroud; especially, to inclose in a winding sheet; to dress for the grave. The ancient Egyptian mummies were shrouded in a number of folds of linen besmeared with gums. --Bacon. 2. To cover, as with a shroud; to protect completely; to cover so as to conceal; to hide; to veil. One of these trees, with all his young ones, may shroud four hundred horsemen. --Sir W. Raleigh. Some tempest rise, And blow out all the stars that light the skies, To shroud my shame. --Dryden.
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