sew
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English sewen, seowen, sowen, from Old English sīwian, sēowian, sēowan (“to sew, mend, patch, knit together, link, unite”), from Proto-Germanic *siwjaną (“to sew”), from Proto-Indo-European *sīw-, *syuh₁- (“to sew”). Cognate with Scots sew (“to sew”), North Frisian saie, sei (“to sew”), Saterland Frisian säie (“to sew”), Danish sy, Polish szyć, Russian шить (šitʹ), Swedish sy, Latin suō, Sanskrit सीव्यति (sī́vyati). Related to seam.
Pronunciation
Verb
sew (third-person singular simple present sews, present participle sewing, simple past sewed, past participle sewn or sewed or (obsolete) sewen)
- (transitive) To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through (pieces of fabric) in order to join them together.
- Balls were first made of grass or leaves held together by strings, and later of pieces of animal skin sewn together and stuffed with feathers or hay.
- "Kate Spade, Whose Handbags Carried Women Into Adulthood, Is Dead at 55" by Jonah Engel Bromwich, Vanessa Friedman and Matthew Schneier, The New York Times (2018)
- She took the label, which originally had been on the inside of the bag, and sewed it to the outside.
- (intransitive) To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through pieces of fabric in order to join them together.
- (transitive) To enclose by sewing.
- to sew money into a bag
Synonyms
Derived terms
Descendants
- → Akolet: sewim
Translations
(transitive) use a needle
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(intransitive) use a needle
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Etymology 2
Related to sewer (“a drain”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /sjuː/
Verb
sew (third-person singular simple present sews, present participle sewing, simple past and past participle sewed)
- (obsolete, transitive) To drain the water from.
- (nautical) Of a ship, to be grounded.
- 1962, Theory and Practice of Seamanship, page 236:
- The upward reaction of the keel blocks may be considered as a negative weight in a moment calculation, producing a decrease in the ship's stability, and it is most important that the vessel remains stable until she takes the blocks along the full length of her keel, i.e. when she is sewed, for until this moment the side shores cannot be successfully rigged.
- 2008, William Henry Smyth, The Sailor's Word:
- A ship resting upon the ground, where the water has fallen, so as to afford no hope of floating until lightened, or the return tide floats her, is said to be sewed, by as much as the difference between the surface of the water, and the ship's floating-mark.
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Middle English
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