sew

¹ American  

[soh] / soʊ /

verb (used with object)

sewed, sewn, sewed, sewing

1. to join or attach by stitches.

2. to make, repair, etc., (a garment) by such means.

3. to enclose or secure with stitches.

   to sew flour in a bag.

4. to close (a hole, wound, etc.) by means of stitches (usually followed byup ).

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verb (used without object)

sewed, sewn, sewed, sewing

1. to work with a needle and thread or with a sewing machine.

verb phrase

1. sew up

   1. Informal. to get or have a monopoly of; control exclusively.

   2. Informal. to complete or conclude (arrangements, negotiations, etc.) successfully.

      They were about to sew up the deal when the argument started.

   3. to gain or be assured of.

      He tried to sew up as many votes as possible before the convention.

sew ² American  

[soo] / su /

verb (used with object)

sewed, sewing

1. to ground (a vessel) at low tide (sometimes followed by byup ).

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verb (used without object)

sewed, sewing

1. (of a vessel) to be grounded at low tide.

noun

1. the amount of additional water necessary to float a grounded vessel.

sew British  

/ səʊ /

verb

1. to join or decorate (pieces of fabric, etc) by means of a thread repeatedly passed through with a needle or similar implement

2. (tr; often foll by on or up) to attach, fasten, or close by sewing

3. (tr) to make (a garment, etc) by sewing

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Other Word Forms

• sewable
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of sew¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English seuen, souen, Old English siw(i)an, siowan; cognate with Old High German siuwan, Old Norse sauma, Gothic siujan; akin to Sanskrit sī́vyati “(he) sews,” Latin suere; see also seam

Origin of sew²

First recorded in 1580–90; from Middle French sewer, shortening of essewer, from unattested Vulgar Latin exaquāre, equivalent to Latin ex- “out of, from, thoroughly” + verb derivative of aqua “water”; see also sewer ¹

Explanation

Sew describes stitching something together. If you sew up the holes in your socks, you use thread and a needle to close them. The word sew comes from the Old English word siwian, to stitch. You can sew a patch on a pair of jeans, sew a dress, or sew up a hole in your grandmother's old quilt. A figurative meaning of sew, as in the phrase to sew something up, is to secure something or bring it to a happy conclusion, like sewing up the plot in the last chapter of a book. Don't confuse sew with sow, to plant or set in motion.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sew sewed sewing sewn

"Using foot-pedalling to sew uniforms is very hard because it is slow", he told AFP.

From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026

He began experimenting with a sewing machine and, in 1846, introduced a foot-powered model that could sew 250 stitches a minute, outracing the fastest human hands by a factor of five.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

She said she used to purchase fabrics from the luxury department store Liberty London and her mother-in-law bought her a sewing machine and encouraged her to sew.

From BBC ● May 30, 2026

Saar’s mother, Beatrice Lillian Parson, taught her how to sew when she was around 10 years old.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2026

"But who's going to sew up the boy's coat? That's what I would like to know."

From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman

“They sewed up my wounds and in the early morning I went back to our building,” Sillie said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026

The surviving brothers carried on, wearing, Paul later recalled, American uniforms with French patches sewed on.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025

Ireland sewed up the play-off place in the group thanks to Troy Parrott's 96th-minute hat-trick goal handing them a 3-2 win over third-placed Hungary.

From Barron's ● Nov. 16, 2025

While the girls sewed, a nun read aloud so that no-one talked.

From BBC ● Nov. 15, 2025

In the real world I had never met anyone who sewed her own clothes, but in Century Village, I had met three.

From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg

My mother made all our clothes on a Singer sewing machine for years.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026

“When they all get together,” said the father of a recent Power Four conference kicker, “it’s basically a sewing circle where they all talk to each other: ‘Hey, I got this,’ ‘I’m getting this.’

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026

To help meet growing demand, it is appealing for local sewing groups to volunteer their time and skills so more unwanted clothing can be given a second life rather than ending up in landfill.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

Begum, who did not give her first name, told AFP she had been turned away by many factories in Gazipur despite having experience in sewing and hemming.

From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026

Aunt Kitty picked up her sewing project and began folding it into a neat pile.

From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan

BH: The two beaded dresses took over a month because every bead was hand beaded and sewn on.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026

The dresses have been sewn, the jewellery has been polished and New York's hairdressers and make-up artists have been fully booked ahead of the Met Gala 2026.

From BBC ● May 3, 2026

All of this ambiguity is intentional, sewn into the script with as much care as Sam stitches her dresses.

From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2026

Some old threads are sewn up and others remain painfully open.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

He has muscles that could crush my head with a flex, and he wears a black dashiki with the cosmos sewn directly into the stitching.

From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer

Related Words

• embroider
• fasten
• stitch
• tailor