sleave

[ sleev ]

verb (used with object)

, sleaved, sleav·ing.

1. to divide or separate into filaments, as silk.

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

/ sliːv /

noun

1. a tangled thread
2. a thin filament unravelled from a thicker thread
3. poetic.
   anything matted or complicated

verb

1. to disentangle (twisted thread, etc)

Other Words From

• un·sleaved adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of sleave¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of sleave¹

Old English slǣfan to divide; related to Middle Low German slēf, Norwegian sleiv big spoon

Example Sentences

It’s one we make from childhood – the sleeping infant, untroubled by conscience or the weight of the world, or in the fairytales that have people slumbering for a hundred years; it’s there in Shakespeare when he writes, in Romeo and Juliet, “where care lodges, sleep will never lie”, and in that line in Macbeth: “innocent sleep, sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care”.

From The Guardian

Shakespeare wisely recognized that sleep “knits up the ravell’d sleave of care” and relieves life’s physical and emotional pains.

From New York Times

Let’s knit up the raveled sleave of care together today, shall we?

From Slate

Shakespeare put it best: Sleep…that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care.

From Scientific American

"Youth and the Lady," 73;"To-day for Me," 103;"Sleep, that knits up the Ravell'd Sleave of Care," 114;"He Married a Wife," 126;"Designs," 141;"Iseult of Brittany," 142.Brockmann,

From Project Gutenberg