# eaves
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /iːvz/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ivz/
* Homophone: eves
* Rhymes: -iːvz

### Etymology 1

* PIE word
* *upér
From Middle English eves (“projecting lower edge of a roof”) [and other forms], from Old English efes, yfes, *ofes (“edge of a roof”), from Proto-West Germanic *ubisu (“hall”), from Proto-Germanic *ubiswō (compare Gothic 𐌿𐌱𐌹𐌶𐍅𐌰 (ubizwa), Old High German obasa (“hall; porch; roof”)), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *upér (“above; over”) (whence over).

#### Noun

eaves pl (plural only)
* (architecture) The underside of a roof that extends beyond the external walls of a building.
** 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 16, column 2:Him that you term'd Sir, the good old Lord Gonzallo, / His teares runs downe his beard like winters drops / From eaues of reeds: […]
** a. 1645, John Milton, “Il Penseroso”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 42:Thus night oft ſee me in thy pale career, / Till civil-ſuited morn appeer, / […] / Or uſher'd with a ſhower ſtill, / When the guſt hath blown his fill, / Ending on the ruſsling Leaves, / With minute drops from off the Eaves.
** 1818 August, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Rosalind and Helen”, in Rosalind and Helen, a Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems, London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier, […], published 1819, →OCLC, page 22:By my window bowered round with leaves, / And down my cheeks the quick tears ran / Like twinkling rain-drops from the eaves, / When warm spring showers are passing o'er: […]
* (by extension) Something that extends over or projects beyond.
** 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 14:But after many strains and heaves / He got up to the Saddle eaves.
** 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto LXV, page 92:The mystic glory swims away; / From off my bed the moonlight dies; / And closing eaves of wearied eyes / I sleep till dusk is dipt in gray: […]Referring here to the eyelids.

##### Alternative forms

* eave

##### Related terms

* eaved
* eavesdrip
* eavesdrop
* eavesdropper
* eavesdropping (noun)
* eavesdroppingly
* eavesread
* eavestrough

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

From eave +‎ -s, from a misinterpretation of the -s ending of eaves as forming a plural.

#### Noun

eaves
* plural of eave

### References

* ↑ “ēves, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* 1 2 Compare “eaves, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020.
* ↑ “eaves, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

### Further reading

* eaves on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

* seave