shed

• enPR: shěd, IPA^(key): /ʃɛd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛd

From Middle English sheden, scheden, schoden, from Old English scēadan, scādan (“to separate, divide, part, make a line of separation between; remove from association or companionship; distinguish, discriminate, decide, determine, appoint; shatter, shed; expound; decree; write down; differ”), from Proto-Germanic *skaiþaną (compare West Frisian skiede, Dutch and German scheiden), from Proto-Indo-European *skeyt- (“to cut, part, divide, separate”), from *skey- (compare Welsh chwydu (“to break open”), Lithuanian skėsti (“to spread”), skíesti (“to separate”), Old Church Slavonic цѣдити (cěditi, “to filter, strain”), Ancient Greek σχίζω (skhízō, “to split”), Old Armenian ցտեմ (cʿtem, “to scratch”), Sanskrit च्यति (chyáti, “he cuts off”)). Related to shoad, shit.

shed (third-person singular simple present sheds, present participle shedding, simple past and past participle shed)

1. (transitive, obsolete, Britain, dialectal) To part, separate or divide.

   To shed something in two.

   To shed the sheep from the lambs.

   A metal comb shed her golden hair.

   We are shed with each other by an enormous distance.

   • Geoffrey Chaucer, Boece (c.1380)

     If there be any thing that knitteth himself to the ilk middle point [of a circle], it is constrained into simplicity (that is to say, into unmovablity), and it ceaseth to be shed and to flit diversely.

   • The Poems of Robert Henryson (1500)

     The northern wind had shed the misty clouds from the sky;

   • Select Practical Writings of David Dickson (1635)

     Lest ye shed with God.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Robert of Brunne to this entry?)

2. (transitive, intransitive) To part with, separate from, leave off; cast off, let fall, be divested of.

   You must shed your fear of the unknown before you can proceed.

   When we found the snake, it was in the process of shedding its skin.

   • Mortimer

     White oats are apt to shed most as they lie, and black as they stand.

   • 2012 November 2, Ken Belson, "," New York Times (retrieved 2 November 2012):

     She called on all the marathoners to go to Staten Island to help with the clean-up effort and to bring the clothes they would have shed at the start to shelters or other places where displaced people were in need.

3. (transitive, archaic) To pour; to make flow.
   • Shakespeare

     Did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

4. (transitive) To allow to flow or fall.

   I didn't shed many tears when he left me.

   A tarpaulin sheds water.

5. (transitive) To radiate, cast, give off (light); see also shed light on.

   Can you shed any light on this problem?

6. (obsolete, transitive) To pour forth, give off, impart.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts II:

     Sence now that he by the right honde of god exalted is, and hath receaved off the father the promys off the holy goost, he hath sheed forthe that which ye nowe se and heare.

7. (obsolete, intransitive) To fall in drops; to pour.
   • Chaucer

     Such a rain down from the welkin shadde.

8. To sprinkle; to intersperse; to cover.
   • Ben Jonson

     Her hair […] is shed with grey.

9. (weaving) To divide, as the warp threads, so as to form a shed, or passageway, for the shuttle.

• bloodshed
• shed blood
• shed tears

From Middle English schede, schode, schad, shæd, from Old English scēada (“a parting of the hair, top of the head”), alteration of earlier *scǣdel, from Proto-Germanic *skaidilō (“part in the hair, crown of the head”). Cognate with Dutch schedel (“skull”), German Scheitel (“hair parting”), Norwegian Bokmål skill (“hair parting”).

• shode (dialectal)
• shead, shede (obsolete)

shed (plural sheds)

1. (weaving) An area between upper and lower warp yarns through which the weft is woven.
2. (obsolete) A distinction or dividing-line.
3. (obsolete) A parting in the hair.
4. (obsolete) The top of the head.
5. (obsolete) An area of land as distinguished from those around it.

• watershed

Dialectal variant of a specialized use of shade.[1]

A typical wooden shed on an allotment in Britain

shed (plural sheds)

1. A slight or temporary structure built to shade or shelter something; a structure usually open in front; an outbuilding; a hut.

   a wagon shed; a wood shed; a garden shed

2. A large temporary open structure for reception of goods.
3. (Britain, derogatory, informal) An automobile which is old, worn-out, slow, or otherwise of poor quality.
4. (Britain, rail transportation) A British Rail Class 66 locomotive.
   • 2000 December 11, Bruce Garbutt, “Re: DRS to Cardiff (was Re: Tractor via Eddiestown)”, in uk.railway, Usenet‎:

     Never saw that but we did stand and watch a pair of Sheds (156 and 165) speed north on a loaded steel.

• edhs, heds

• shedu

From Latin sedeō. Compare Daco-Romanian ședea, șed.

shed (third-person singular present indicative shadi / shade, past participle shidzutã)

1. I sit.

• shideari / shideare
• shidzut

• mi-ashedzu