Library / English Dictionary

SHROUD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Burial garment in which a corpse is wrapped

Synonyms:

cerement; pall; shroud; winding-clothes; winding-sheet

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("shroud" is a kind of...):

burial garment (cloth used to cover a corpse in preparation for burial)

Derivation:

shroud (wrap in a shroud)

shroud (cover as if with a shroud)

shroud (form a cover like a shroud)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(nautical) a line (rope or chain) that regulates the angle at which a sail is set in relation to the wind

Synonyms:

mainsheet; sheet; shroud; tack; weather sheet

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("shroud" is a kind of...):

line (something (as a cord or rope) that is long and thin and flexible)

Domain category:

navigation; sailing; seafaring (the work of a sailor)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "shroud"):

futtock shroud (shroud that is part of a ship's rigging)

Holonyms ("shroud" is a part of...):

ship (a vessel that carries passengers or freight)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A line that suspends the harness from the canopy of a parachute

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("shroud" is a kind of...):

line (something (as a cord or rope) that is long and thin and flexible)

Holonyms ("shroud" is a part of...):

chute; parachute (rescue equipment consisting of a device that fills with air and retards your fall)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Wrap in a shroud

Example:

shroud the corpses

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "shroud" is one way to...):

wrap; wrap up (arrange or fold as a cover or protection)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

shroud (burial garment in which a corpse is wrapped)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cover as if with a shroud

Example:

The origins of this civilization are shrouded in mystery

Synonyms:

cover; enshroud; hide; shroud

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "shroud" is one way to...):

enclose; enfold; envelop; enwrap; wrap (enclose or enfold completely with or as if with a covering)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Sentence example:

The wind storms shroud the area with dust and dirt

Derivation:

shroud (burial garment in which a corpse is wrapped)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Form a cover like a shroud

Example:

Mist shrouded the castle

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "shroud" is one way to...):

cover; spread over (form a cover over)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sentence example:

Dust and dirt shroud the area

Derivation:

shroud (burial garment in which a corpse is wrapped)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Rob a corpse of a shroud—anything.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Our sun will eventually burn out and shroud itself with stellar debris, but not for another 5 billion years.

(Hubble Views a Colorful Demise of a Sun-like Star, NASA)

"Don't use such dreadful expressions," replied Meg from the depths of the veil in which she had shrouded herself like a nun sick of the world.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The Red Planet has been observed shrouded by planet-encircling dust nine times since 1924, with the five most recent planetary storms detected in 1977, 1982, 1994, 2001 and 2007.

(Study Predicts Next Global Dust Storm on Mars, NASA)

Delighted and surprised, I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms; a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw the grave-worms crawling in the folds of the flannel.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The central part was evidently of a great age and shrouded in ivy, but the large windows showed that modern changes had been carried out, and one wing of the house appeared to be entirely new.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This research pushes the date for the last common ancestor between sharks and other types of jawed vertebrates back to 440 million years ago — more than 17 million years older than the previous estimate — and raises new questions about what life was like during a prehistoric period long shrouded in secrecy.

(Ancient sharks likely more diverse than previously thought, National Science Foundation)

For years I have endeavoured to break through the veil which shrouded it, and at last the time came when I seized my thread and followed it, until it led me, after a thousand cunning windings, to ex-Professor Moriarty of mathematical celebrity.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

While I toiled up the fore-shrouds the Ghost slowly paid off.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

For nothing in the world would I have again ventured, shaken as I was, upon the overhanging port shrouds from which Israel had so lately fallen.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)