Etymology From Middle English shroud, from Old English sċrūd, from Proto-Germanic *skrūdą. Cognate with Old Norse skrúð (“the shrouds of a ship”) ( > Danish, Norwegian skrud (“splendid attire”)).
That which clothes, covers, conceals, or protects; a garment.
swaddled, as new born, in sable shrouds1636, George Sandys, Paraphrase upon the Psalms and Hymns dispersed throughout the Old and New Testaments:
Every time we came a research area, we had to pause while the scientists threw grey shrouds over prototypes that I wasn’t to see.2019 April 25, Samanth Subramanian, “Hand dryers v paper towels: the surprisingly dirty fight for the right to dry your hands”, in The Guardian:
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Especially, the dress for the dead; a winding sheet.
O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, From off the battlements of any tower, […] Or bid me go into a new-made grave And hide me with a dead man in his shroud […]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 IV, scene i]:
Yet let us goǃ England is in her shroud – we may not enchain ourselves to a corpse.1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter II, in The Last Man. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:
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The obstructive tendency attributed to the knot in spiritual matters appears in a Swiss superstition that if, in sewing a corpse into its shroud, you make a knot on the thread, it will hinder the soul of the deceased on its passage to eternity.1911, James George Frazer, chapter V, in Taboo and the Perils of the Soul (The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion; II), third edition, London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, page 310:
This is Radio Clash, you don't need that funeral shroud1981, “This Is Radio Clash”, performed by The Clash:
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That which covers or shelters like a shroud.
Jura answers through her misty shroud.1812–1818, Lord Byron, “(please specify |canto=I to IV)”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):
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A covered place used as a retreat or shelter, as a cave or den; also, a vault or crypt.
The shroud to which he won / His fair-eyed oxen.c. 1618, George Chapman, Hymns of Homer:
a vault, or shroud, as under a church1554, John Withals, A Dictionarie in English and Latine:
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Nautical, Transport One of a set of ropes or cables (rigging) attaching a mast to the sides of a vessel or to another anchor point, serving to support the mast sideways; such rigging collectively.
Then - a shock of water, a wild rush of boiling foam, and I was clinging for my life to the shroud, ay, swept straight out from it like a flag in a gale.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
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One of the two annular plates at the periphery of a water wheel, which form the sides of the buckets; a shroud plate.
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Aerospace, Astronautics, Business, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences A streamlined protective covering used to protect the payload during a rocket-powered launch.
Etymology From Middle English schrouden (> Anglo-Latin scrudāre), from Middle English schroud (“shroud”) (see above).
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To cover with a shroud.
The ancient Egyptian mummies were shrouded in a number of folds of linen besmeared with gums.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
The sliding door, which is fitted with a drop light, is shrouded with bristle-type draught excluders.1954 February, “Third Class Corridor Brake Coaches for British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, pages 132-133:
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To conceal or hide from view, as if by a shroud.
The details of the plot were shrouded in mystery.
The truth behind their weekend retreat was shrouded in obscurity.
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One of these trees, with all his young ones, may shroud four hundred horsemen.1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5):
Moon ſlip behind ſome Cloud, ſome Tempeſt riſe / And blovv out all the Stars that light the Skies, / To ſhrovvd my ſhame.1665 (first performance), John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1667, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii, page 30:
As we breasted the first summit, the precipitous mass of the Raven's Rock, towering some 250 ft. above the railway, looked grim and forbidding in the failing light, and distant Ben Wyves was shrouded in mist.1951 January, H. A. Vallance, “Kyle of Lochalsh Revisited”, in Railway Magazine, page 14:
There's a shadow just behind me Shrouding every step I take Making every promise empty Pointing every finger at me Waiting like a stalking butler Who upon the finger rests Murder now the path of must we Just because the son has come1993, “Sober”, performed by Tool:
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To take shelter or harbour.
[T]hough this my vvorke, ovvne not vvorth enough to deſerve your patronage, yet ſuch is your benigne humanity, that I am confident you vvill daigne it your protection, under vvhich it vvillingly ſhrovvdes it ſelfe.1634, William Wood, “To the Right Worshipfull, My Much Honored Friend, Sir William Armyne, Knight and Baronet”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, […], →OCLC, 1st part, page 8:
If your stray attendance be yet lodged, / Or shroud within these limits.1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC:
Behold, the Assyrian was a Cedar in Lebanon with faire branches, and with a shadowing shrowd, and of an hie stature, and his top was among the thicke boughes.1611, King James Version, “xxxi.iii”, in Ezekiel, Barker edition: