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

But regardless, he said, Democrats would have to find a way to "sew these two very large groups back together" if they wanted to reverse recent election losses.

From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026

PhD fashion students at DMU put on a workshop teaching pupils how to sew and mend damaged clothes.

From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026

Others simply mocked the assertion that a new ballroom would sew up the president’s apparent security concerns.

From Salon ● May 1, 2026

The center funded converting a judiciary building in Sweida into a displacement center housing 130 families, complete with a workshop where women could sew clothing, including uniforms for Druze militias.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 21, 2025

She is teaching me how to sew, and we are making pretty nightgowns and robes that she will sell to the families of new brides for their trousseaux.

From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar

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

And by the way, that was a curtain rug and some extra fabric that I had found and we had sewed to make it affordable.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2024

Each time a state ratified the 19th Amendment, Alice Paul sewed a star on the purple, white, and gold “ratification banner” she kept at the National Woman's Party headquarters.

From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling

It features the base of an old sewing machine pasted over with a cigar box wrapper and the oft-reoccurring theme of a moon, sun and stars.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 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

Zaghari-Ratcliffe added there was only one, old industrial sewing machine in the prison and she was assigned to be in charge of its use.

From BBC ● May 30, 2026

When she’s not writing, she enjoys playing dominoes, sewing and spending time at the beach.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2026

Olka was bent over one of the sewing machines, so focused on her work that I had to touch her shoulder to get her attention.

From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman

Paraguay later in the day to find out if they’d have Group D completely sewn up before even playing their third match.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

And Wawrinka carried a memento of those shorts in his final French Open outing, with a strip of the fabric sewn on to his shirt.

From BBC ● May 25, 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

That genius Andrew Friedman has seemingly perfectly and tightly sewn together another title team.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2026

But now, as she went over what she’d sewn since dinner, she saw that the stitches were wide and uneven.

From "Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Pérez

Related Words

• embroider
• fasten
• stitch
• tailor