Shroud1, n.
n. [A-S. scrūd, a garment, shroud, Icel. & Sw. skrūd, adorned, clothed, Icel. skreyta, to adorn, skraut, ornament.]
- That which clothes, covers, conceals, or protects; a garment. “Swaddled, as new born, in sable shrouds.” Sandys.
- Especially, the dress of the dead; a winding-sheet. “A dead man in his shroud.” Shak.
- Hence, that which clothes, covers, or shelters, like a shroud. “Jura answers through her misty shroud.” Byron.
- Hence, also, a covered place used as a retreat or shelter, as a cave or den; also, a vault or crypt, as that under a church. [Obs.]
“The shroud to which he won His fair-eyed oxen.” Chapman. “A vault, or shroud, as under a church.” Withal. 5. The branching top of a tree. [Obs.] The Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and with a shadowing shroud. Ezek. xxxi. 3.
- (pl.) (Naut.) A set of ropes reaching from the mast-heads to the sides of a vessel, to support the masts. Totten.
- (Mach.) One of the two annular plates at the periphery of a water-wheel, which form the sides of the buckets; a shroud-plate.
Bowsprit shrouds (Naut.), ropes extending from the head of the bowsprit to the sides of the vessel.—Futtock shrouds, ropes connecting the top-mast rigging around the futtock-staves with the lower rigging at the cat-harpings.