shroud
/ʃraʊd
/noun
1A length of cloth or an enveloping garment in which a dead person is wrapped for burial: he was buried in a linen shroud...
- Nevertheless, the image is believed by many to be a negative image of the crucified Christ and the shroud is believed to be his burial shroud.
- Sometimes the quilts are eventually used as a shroud for burial.
- The burial shroud was lying where the body had been placed and the headpiece was folded neatly and put in a different part of the tomb.
Synonyms
winding sheet, grave clothes, burial clothes, cerements, chrisom
1.1 technical A protective casing or cover: the trigger shroud prevents snagging on clothing...
- The slide is made of a stamping of chrome moly steel, with a machined steel breechblock segment, and covered with a polymer shroud.
- Atop the external tank would sit a rocket stage and a 40-ton automated cargo lander covered by a streamlined shroud.
- There is a protective shroud on top between the heatsink and the fan, which has a round opening to allow the air to get to the fins of the cooler from the fan.
2A thing that envelops or obscures something: a shroud of mist they operate behind a shroud of secrecy...
- Senate Minority Leader Senator Harry Reid invoked Rule 21 that forced senators to close the doors and operate in a shroud of secrecy.
- Under a shroud of secrecy nearly two tons of nuclear and radioactive material were whisked away from Iraq and are now in an undisclosed secure Department of Energy site in the United States.
- It is the only one of the top three farmer-controlled food firms who maintain a shroud of secrecy on their executive directors' pay packets.
Synonyms
covering, cover, pall, cloak, mask, mantle, blanket, sheet, layer, overlay, envelope, cloud, veil, screen, curtain, canopy
3 (shrouds) A set of ropes forming part of the standing rigging of a sailing boat and supporting the mast or topmast.The side decks are uncluttered except for the necessary genoa track and the mast shrouds are well inboard for easy passage and improved sheeting angles....
- There is an anchor locker forward and rigging shrouds are well inboard for easy passage fore and aft.
- The rig is a simple deck-stepped mast-head sloop with single upper shrouds and spreaders, double lower shrouds and split backstay.
3.1 (also shroud line) Each of the lines joining the canopy of a parachute to the harness.The wingtip snagged a shroud line and deflated the canopy....
- The screw holds in the shroud line up easily with those in the heatsink base, and the four small screws supplied attach the cover firmly.
- I unfortunately lost the pictures of his very slick bridles, but he has created two aerotow bridles from Spectra and Vectran lines in thicknesses used for shroud lines on parachutes.
verb [with object]
1Wrap or dress (a body) in a shroud for burial: the body was washed and shrouded...
- Thousands more thronged to the college where Mahendra's body was laid, shrouded in a red flag.
2Cover or envelop so as to conceal from view: mountains shrouded by cloud the mystery which shrouds the origins of the universe...
- The whole mountain is shrouded by clouds and mist, which the wind blows into various strange shapes.
- I'd noticed earlier that the alley we share had a lot of bricks scattered around, but a curtain shrouds my view of the actual wall.
- Altair craned his head around in an attempt to steal one last glance, but before he could, he found a veil of fog shrouding his view.
Synonyms
cover, envelop, veil, cloak, curtain, swathe, wrap, blanket, screen, cloud, mantle, conceal, hide, disguise, mask, obscure, surround, overlay, clothe
literary enshroud
Origin
Late Old English scrūd 'garment, clothing', of Germanic origin, from a base meaning 'cut'; related to shred. An early sense of the verb (Middle English) was 'cover so as to protect'.
Late Old English scrūd meant ‘garment, clothing’ and is from a Germanic source from a base meaning ‘cut’; shred (Old English) is related. An early sense of to shroud in Middle English was ‘cover so as to protect’. Use for the sheet in which a corpse is laid out, dates from the late 16th century.