sleave

American  

[sleev] / sliv /

verb (used with object)

sleaved, sleaving

1. to divide or separate into filaments, as silk.

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noun

1. anything matted or raveled.

2. a filament of silk obtained by separating a thicker thread.

3. a silk in the form of such filaments.

sleave British  

/ sliːv /

noun

1. a tangled thread

2. a thin filament unravelled from a thicker thread

3. poetic anything matted or complicated

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verb

1. to disentangle (twisted thread, etc)

Other Word Forms

• unsleaved
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of sleave

1585–95; Old English -slǣfan (only in the compound tōslǣfan ), akin to slīfan to split; see sliver

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sleave sleaved

Let’s knit up the raveled sleave of care together today, shall we?

From Slate ● Jun. 20, 2016

"Sleep," he murmurs, "that's the stuff that knits the raveled sleave of care."

From Time Magazine Archive

Care adds a nail to our coffin, 189. --, knits up the ravelled sleave of, 53. --is an enemy to life, 35.

From Familiar Quotations by John Bartlett

“I love you—I love you—” until at last sleep helped to knit up the ravelled sleave of care.

From Olive in Italy by Moray Dalton

Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care, The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great Nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast.

From The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare by Henry Nicholson Ellacombe

The silks, damasks, taffetas, sarcenets, altobassos or counterfeit cloth of gold, unwrought China silk, sleaved silk, white twisted silk, and curled cypress.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 07 by Robert Kerr