Definition of "sheaf"

sheaf

/ʃiːf/

noun
plural sheaves or sheafs
1. A quantity of the stalks and ears of wheat, rye, or other grain, bound together; a bundle of grain or straw.
  Quotations
  O, let me teach you how to knit again / This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf, / These broken limbs again into one body.
  c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene iii], line 70
  Ev’n while the Reaper fills his greedy hands, / And binds the golden Sheafs in brittle bands
  1697, Virgil, “The First Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], page 60, lines 429–430
2. Any collection of things bound together.
  Quotations
  Together the two men march up the aisle and mount the dais, and while Muspole shakes hands with the chairman and his lady, the major draws a sheaf of notes from a briefcase and lays them on the table.
  1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy
3. A bundle of arrows sufficient to fill a quiver, or the allowance of each archer.
  Quotations
  The sheaf of arrows shook, and rattled in the case.
  1700, John Dryden, Palamon and Arcite
4. A quantity of arrows, usually twenty-four.
  Quotations
  Arrows were anciently made of reeds, afterwards of cornel wood, and occasionally of every species of wood: but according to Roger Ascham, ash was best; arrows were reckoned by sheaves, a sheaf consisted of twenty-four arrows.
  1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 34
5. (mechanical) A sheave.
6. (mathematics) An abstract construct in topology that associates data to the open sets of a topological space, together with well-defined restrictions from larger to smaller open sets, subject to the condition that compatible data on overlapping open sets corresponds, via the restrictions, to a unique datum on the union of the open sets.
verb
third-person singular simple present sheafs, present participle sheafing, simple past and past participle sheafed
1. (transitive) To gather and bind into a sheaf; to make into sheaves
2. (intransitive) To collect and bind cut grain, or the like; to make sheaves.
  Quotations
  They that reap must sheaf and bind; Then to cart with Rosalind.
  c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii], line 107

Definition of "sheaf"

sheaf

noun

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verb

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