Etymology From Middle English sewen, sowen, from Old English siwian, seowian, seowan (“to sew, mend, patch, knit together, link, unite”), from Proto-Germanic *siwjaną (“to sew”), from Proto-Indo-European *syewH- (“to sew”). Cognate with Scots sew, North Frisian saie, sei, Saterland Frisian säie, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish sy, and, more distantly, Polish szyć, Russian шить (šitʹ), Latin suō, Sanskrit सीव्यति (sī́vyati). Related to seam.
1
To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through (pieces of fabric) in order to join them together.
I sewed a button on.
Balls were first made of grass or leaves held together by strings, and later of pieces of animal skin sewn together and stuffed with feathers or hay.
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She [Kate Spade] took the label, which originally had been on the inside of the bag, and sewed it to the outside.2018 June 5, Jonah Engel Bromwich, Vanessa Friedman, Matthew Schneier, “Kate Spade, whose handbags carried women into adulthood, is dead at 55”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Jun 2018:
2
To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through pieces of fabric in order to join them together.
And than as for other Potages, ſtued Trypys, yt is dight redy. And than for to make the Numbleis in ſewe[…]c. 1555, John Lacy, “For to make Frumente”, in Wyl Bucke His Teſtament, London: Wyllam Copland:
At Ewle we wonten gambole, daunce, to carrole, and to ſing, To haue gud ſpiced Sewe, and Roſte, and plum-pies for a King[…]1597, William Warner, chapter XXIIII, in Albions England a continued hiſtorie of the ſame kingdome […] , volume Book V, London: Ioan Broome, page 121:
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If a thicke grewell or ſew be made thereof, together with floure, oile, and vinegre, ſo tempered as it may be ſupped[…]1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XX.] Chap. XVI..”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 2nd tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 63:
Now geld with the gelder the ram and the bul, / sew ponds, amend dammes, and sel webster thy wul1573, Thomas Tusser, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, volume 8, page 40:
[…] accommodated a sluce to clense and sew the Pond, with a grate of wood to let out the wast, as in other stews and Vivaries.c. 1700, John Evelyn, chapter 9, in Elysium Britannicum, Or the Royal Gardens, published 1998, page 183:
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If the Bank of a Pond sews, it will preserve the Fish in Frost; the Reason, as I imagine, is, because where the Water sews out, the Air will bubble in, which relieves the Fish; or perhaps it might put the Water into some Degree of Motion.1713, Roger North, A discourse of fish and fish-ponds:
The upward reaction of the keel blocks may be considered as a negative weight in a moment calculation, producing a decrease in the ship's stability, and it is most important that the vessel remains stable until she takes the blocks along the full length of her keel, i.e. when she is sewed, for until this moment the side shores cannot be successfully rigged.1962, Theory and Practice of Seamanship, page 236:
A ship resting upon the ground, where the water has fallen, so as to afford no hope of floating until lightened, or the return tide floats her, is said to be sewed, by as much as the difference between the surface of the water, and the ship's floating-mark.2008, William Henry Smyth, The Sailor's Word: