sleeve
Americannoun
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sleeves
plural
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the part of a garment that covers the arm, varying in form and length but commonly tubular.
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a protective container, usually thin and flexible with an opening on one side for insertion or removal of an item, as a paper storage envelope for a phonograph record, or a padded case for a tablet or other electronic device: a 24-sleeve CD wallet.
a form-fitting laptop sleeve;
a 24-sleeve CD wallet.
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a pliable tubular or rectangular container for crackers, cookies, and the like that is typically opened at one end to remove individual servings: The largest box has four sleeves of saltines inside.
I ate a whole sleeve of shortbreads before I realized how many calories that is!
The largest box has four sleeves of saltines inside.
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Machinery. a tubular piece, as of metal, fitting over a rod or the like.
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a pattern of tattoos that covers the arm from shoulder to wrist in one integrated piece of tattoo art.
I got my first tattoo when I turned 18, and by 28 I had full sleeves on both arms.
verb (used with object)
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to furnish with sleeves.
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Machinery. to fit with a sleeve; join or fasten by means of a sleeve.
idioms
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have something up one's sleeve, to have a secret plan, scheme, opinion, or the like.
I could tell by her sly look that she had something up her sleeve.
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laugh up / in one's sleeve, to be secretly amused or contemptuous; laugh inwardly.
to laugh up one's sleeve at someone's affectations.
noun
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the part of a garment covering the arm
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a tubular piece that is forced or shrunk into a cylindrical bore to reduce the diameter of the bore or to line it with a different material; liner
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a tube fitted externally over two cylindrical parts in order to join them; bush
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US name: jacket. a flat cardboard or plastic container to protect a gramophone record
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to prepare oneself for work, a fight, etc
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secretly ready
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of sleeve
First recorded before 950; Middle English sleve, slieve, Old English slēfe (Anglian), slīefe; akin to Dutch sloof “apron”
Explanation
The part of your clothing that covers your arm (or part of your arm) is a sleeve. Some t-shirts have long sleeves, others have short sleeves, and your tank top doesn't have any sleeves at all. On a hot day, you might roll up the sleeves of your shirt, or you might change into one with short sleeves (or no sleeves at all, also known as sleeveless). Another kind of sleeve is a container or protective covering, like a record sleeve or a sleeve of crackers. If you have something "up your sleeve," it means you're hiding something to use later in a surprising way.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
BingX sponsors Chelsea and OKX has an sleeve agreement with Manchester City.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
That is a lot more articulate than I could manage when people asked me about the pounds I lost after my own gastric sleeve surgery about a decade ago.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
The trick up JetZero’s sleeve is that its radical, new aircraft isn’t actually that new at all.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
So know what you actually own in the bond sleeve.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
She turned just in time to see the tattered sleeve of the thief emerge from her bag, dirty hand clutching her coin purse.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
He rolls up his sleeves, says a colleague, negotiating boiler repairs and driving six hours round-trip to close a deal to earn $12,000 a year in rent.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026
She kept fans tantalized with rumors that a penchant for long-sleeved shirts in her later years concealed two full sleeves of tattoos.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2026
Clubs were given permission to put sponsors' logos on the back of shirts and the sleeves from the 2017-18 season, opening up another revenue stream.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
Apple TV’s “Widow’s Bay” is filled with idiosyncratic characters who wear their charming small-town quirks on their sleeves.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Next I pulled on a cotton chemise with pretty white ribbons, thankful for its lack of sleeves.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
Not that he’s got a dearth of it; he’s been creating nearly a “postcard” a day for 30 years, and now has thousands of carefully curated pieces in archival sleeved books.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2025
The doll is dressed is a puff sleeved frock adorned with butterflies and flowers in yellow and blue - colours associated with Down’s syndrome awareness.
From Reuters ● Apr. 25, 2023
"I mostly wear jumpers and long sleeved blouses or longer dresses from there," the 23-year-old says.
From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2023
Eventually, the noise became such that he could not continue as normal, so James raised a sleeved right arm in recognition and the roar from the crowd grew in kind.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 19, 2022
Morrie wore a long- sleeved blue shirt—he was almost always chilly, even when it was ninety degrees outside—but Koppel removed his jacket and did the interview in shirt and tie.
From "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom
At the Safa Recycling and Material Processing company, workers shovel wiring from electronics and electrical cables into a $220,000 grinding machine that shreds copper cables and separates them from their plastic sleeving.
From Nature ● Nov. 29, 2016
When these wires are adjacent to ground or battery wires they may be protected by sleeving, so as to prevent crosses.
From Cyclopedia of Telephony and Telegraphy, Vol. 2 A General Reference Work on Telephony, etc. etc. by Samuel McMeen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
