SHEAF • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Sheaf

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noun

Sheaf n. (Mech.) A sheave. (R.)

Sheaf n. (pl. sheaves)

A quantity of the stalks and ears of wheat, rye, or other grain, bound together; a bundle of grain or straw. "The reaper fills his greedy hands, And binds the golden sheaves in brittle bands."

Any collection of things bound together; a bundle; specifically, a bundle of arrows sufficient to fill a quiver, or the allowance of each archer, usually twenty-four. "The sheaf of arrows shook and rattled in the case."

verb

Sheaf v. t. To gather and bind into a sheaf; to make into sheaves; as, to sheaf wheat.

Sheaf v. i. To collect and bind cut grain, or the like; to make sheaves. "They that reap must sheaf and bind."

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Etymology of 'Sheaf'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sheaf" Quotes from Famous Books

... is customary in the county of Dorset, after carrying a field of corn, to leave behind a sheaf, to intimate to the rest of the parish that the families of those who reaped the field are to have the first lease. After these gleaners have finished, the sheaf is removed, and other parties are admitted, called "barissers." I have been told that the ...

— Notes & Queries, No. 53. Saturday, November 2, 1850 • Various

... Wiltshire, in the harvest, at the very time of the fight at Bosworth field, between King Eichard III. and Henry VII. there was one of the parish took two sheaves, crying (with some intervals) now for Richard, now for Henry; at last lets fall the sheaf that did represent Richard; and cried, now for King Henry, Richard is slain. This action did agree with the very time, day and hour. When I was a schoolboy I have heard this confidently delivered by tradition by some old men of ...

— Miscellanies upon Various Subjects • John Aubrey

... ready. From the little bag in her lap she took out a small sheaf of folded papers, memorandum slips, they seemed to be, and whirled them over ...

— Old Crow • Alice Brown

... year, when it is just entering on the Sabbatical year; and harvest of the Sabbatical year, which is proceeding toward the close of the Sabbatical year. Rabbi Ishmael said, "as the earing-time (mentioned Exod. xxxiv. 21) is voluntary, so the harvest is voluntary, except the harvest of the (omer) sheaf."(41) ...

— Hebrew Literature

... day there came the postman's knock, The morning was bright and sunny, And showed me a sheaf of circulars, stock Attempts to get ...

— Briefless Ballads and Legal Lyrics - Second Series • James Williams

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