sheath

Meanings

Noun

• A holster for a sword; a scabbard.
• Anything that has a similar shape to a scabbard that is used to hold an object that is longer than it is wide.
• The base of a leaf when sheathing or investing a branch or stem, as in grasses.
• The insulating outer cover of an electrical cable.
• One of the elytra of an insect.
• A tight-fitting dress.
• The foreskin of certain animals (for example, dogs and horses).
• A condom.

Verb

• Alternate spelling of sheathe

Origin

• From Middle English sheth, shethe, from Old English sċēaþ, from Proto-Germanic *skaiþiz, from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (possibly from the notion of a split stick with a sword inserted). The English word is cognate with Danish skede, Dutch schede, Icelandic skeið, German Scheide, Low German scheed, Norwegian skjede.
• A variant of sheathe.