shed
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: shěd
ipa: /ʃɛd/
rhymes: -ɛd
Forms: form: sheds
form: shedding
form: shed
form: shed
form: shedded
form: shedded
Etymology: From Middle English scheden, schede, from Old English scēadan, scādan (“to separate, divide, part, make a line of separation between; remove from association or companionship; distinguish, discriminate, decide, determine, appoint; shatter, shed; expound; decree; write down; differ”), from Proto-West Germanic *skaiþan, from Proto-Germanic *skaiþaną (compare West Frisian skiede, Dutch and German scheiden), from Proto-Indo-European *skeyt- (“to cut, part, divide, separate”), from *skey-.
See also Irish scian (“knife”), Lithuanian skėsti (“to spread”), ski̇́esti (“to separate”), Old Church Slavonic цѣдити (cěditi, “to filter, strain”), Ancient Greek σχίζω (skhízō, “to split”), Old Armenian ցտեմ (cʻtem, “to scratch”), Sanskrit च्यति (cyáti, “he cuts off”)). Related to shoad, shit, sheath.
Senses: examples: text: to shed something in two
text: to shed the sheep from the lambs
text: A metal comb shed her golden hair.
text: We are shed with each other by an enormous distance.
text: 1635, "Sermon on Philippians III, 7, 8", in Select Practical Writings of David Dickson (1845), Volume 1, page 166 Internet Archive
Lest […] ye shed with God.
glosses: To part, separate or divide.
examples: text: You must shed your fear of the unknown before you can proceed.
text: When we found the snake, it was in the process of shedding its skin.
text: White oats are apt to shed most as they lie, and black as they stand.
ref: 1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC:
text: She called on all the marathoners to go to Staten Island to help with the clean-up effort and to bring the clothes they would have shed at the start to shelters or other places where displaced people were in need.
ref: 2012 November 2, Ken Belson, New York Times, retrieved 02 Nov 2012:
glosses: To part with, separate from, leave off; cast off, cast, let fall, be divested of.
examples: text: Did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?
ref: c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
glosses: To pour; to make flow.
examples: text: I didn't shed many tears when he left me.
text: A tarpaulin sheds water.
text: The crash occurred in a steep-sided cutting lined with self-seeded deciduous trees that were shedding their leaves, following unusually heavy rain and high winds in the 12 hours beforehand.
ref: 2023 November 1, Paul Clifton, “RAIB recommends actions to tackle leaves on the line”, in RAIL, number 995, page 10:
glosses: To allow to flow or fall.
examples: text: to shed light on
text: Can you shed any light on this problem?
text: What tho’ the moon—the white moon
Shed all the splendour of her noon,
Her smile is chilly—and her beam,
In that time of dreariness, will seem
(So like you gather in your breath)
A portrait taken after death.
ref: 1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems:
glosses: To radiate, cast, give off (light).
examples: text: Sence now that he by the right honde of god exalted is, and hath receaved off the father the promys off the holy goost, he hath sheed forthe that which ye nowe se and heare.
ref: 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts ij:
glosses: To pour forth, give off, impart.
glosses: To fall in drops; to pour.
examples: text: Her hair […] is shed with gray.
ref: 1606, Ben Jonson, Hymenaei:
glosses: To sprinkle; to intersperse; to cover.
topics: business
manufacturing
textiles
weaving
glosses: To divide, as the warp threads, so as to form a shed, or passageway, for the shuttle.
Derived terms: bloodshed
deshedding
shed a tear
shed blood
sheddable
sheddase
shedder
shed light on
shed light upon
shed skin
shed tears