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

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Etymology

Origin of sleave

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

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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

Let coarse bold hands, from slimy nest, The bedded fish in banks outwrest, Let curious Traitors sleave silk flies, To ’witch poor wandring fishes eyes.

From The Complete Angler 1653 by Izaak Walton

Why art thou, then, exasperate, thou idle immaterial skein of sleave silk, thou green sarcenet flap for a sore eye, thou tassel of a prodigal's purse, thou?

From Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare

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

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

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