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

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

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 Ellacombe, Henry Nicholson

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 Shakespeare, William

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

From Handy Dictionary of Poetical Quotations by Various