Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small structure, either freestanding or attached to a larger structure, serving for storage or shelter.
  • noun A large low structure often open on all sides.
  • intransitive verb To have (a growth or covering) be disconnected or fall off by a natural process.
  • intransitive verb To rid oneself of (something not wanted or needed).
  • intransitive verb To take off (an article of clothing).
  • intransitive verb To produce and release (a tear or tears).
  • intransitive verb Archaic To pour forth.
  • intransitive verb To repel without allowing penetration.
  • intransitive verb To diffuse or radiate; send forth or impart.
  • intransitive verb To lose a natural growth or covering by natural process.
  • noun An elevation in the earth's surface from which water flows in two directions; a watershed.
  • noun Something, such as an exoskeleton or outer skin, that has been shed or sloughed.
  • noun The space made by raising certain warp threads on a loom and lowering others, allowing the woof to be passed between them.
  • idiom (shed blood) To wound or kill in a violent manner.
  • idiom (shed blood) To be wounded or killed.
  • idiom (shed (someone's) blood) To wound someone or take someone's life, especially with violence.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To part; separate; divide: as, to shed the hair.
  • To throw off.
  • To molt, cast, or exuviate, as a quadruped its hair, a bird its feathers, a crab its shell, a snake its skin, or a deer its antlers.
  • To throw or cause to flow off without penetrating, as a roof or covering of oil-cloth, or the like.
  • To scatter about or abroad; disperse; diffuse: as, to shed light on a subject.
  • To sprinkle; intersperse.
  • To let or cause to flow out; let fall; pour out; spill: used especially in regard to blood and tears: as, to shed blood; to shed tears of joy.
  • To cast, part with, or let fall a covering, vestment, envelop, or seed; molt; lose, cast, throw off, or exuviate a covering: as, the bird sheds in August; the crab sheds in June.
  • To be let fall; pour or be poured; be spilled.
  • noun A division or parting: as, the shed of the hair (obsolete or provincial); a water-shed.
  • noun In weaving, a parting or opening between sets of warp-threads in a loom, made by the action of the heddles, or by the Jacquard attachment, for the passage of the shuttle and the weft-thread.
  • noun The slope of land or of a hill: as, which way is the shed?
  • noun The parting of the hair; hence, the top of the head; temples.
  • To fall prematurely, as the young bolls of cotton-plants do when affected by certain functional disorders. The disease is known as shedding.
  • noun A slight or temporary shelter; a penthouse or lean-to; hence, an outhouse; a hut or mean dwelling: as, a snow-shed; a wood-shed.
  • noun A large open structure for the temporary storage of goods, vehicles, etc.: as, a shed on a wharf; a railway-shed; an engine-shed.
  • noun A sheet.
  • To place in a shed; protect by means of a shed.
  • noun The smolt, or young salmon of the first year.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A slight or temporary structure built to shade or shelter something; a structure often open in front; an outbuilding; a hut.
  • noun (Aëronautics) A covered structure for housing aircraft; a hangar.
  • transitive verb Obs. or Prov. Eng. To separate; to divide.
  • transitive verb To part with; to throw off or give forth from one's self; to emit; to diffuse; to cause to emanate or flow; to pour forth or out; to spill.
  • transitive verb To let fall; to throw off, as a natural covering of hair, feathers, shell; to cast.
  • transitive verb To cause to flow off without penetrating.
  • transitive verb rare To sprinkle; to intersperse; to cover.
  • transitive verb (Weaving) To divide, as the warp threads, so as to form a shed, or passageway, for the shuttle.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To fall in drops; to pour.
  • intransitive verb To let fall the parts, as seeds or fruit; to throw off a covering or envelope.
  • noun Obs. or Prov. Eng. A parting; a separation; a division.
  • noun The act of shedding or spilling; -- used only in composition, as in bloodshed.
  • noun That which parts, divides, or sheds; -- used in composition, as in watershed.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of Middle English shadde, perhaps variant of shade, shade; see shade.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English sheden, to separate, shed, from Old English scēadan, to divide; see skei- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English sheden, scheden, schoden, 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-Germanic *skaiþanan (cf. West Frisian skiede, Dutch/German scheiden), from Proto-Indo-European *skēi-t-, zero grade of *skeh₁i-d 'to cut' (cf. Welsh chwydu 'to break open', Lithuanian skíesti 'to separate', Old Church Slavonic чѣдити (čĕditi) 'to filter, strain', Ancient Greek σχίζω ("to split"), Old Armenian ցտեմ (cʿtem, "to scratch"), Sanskrit च्यति (chyáti) 'he cuts off'). Related to shoad; shit.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English scēad, from Germanic. Cognate with German Scheitel ‘hair parting’.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Variant of shade.

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Examples

Comments

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  • (n): a revered place at Kingsholm in Gloucester, England where "shed-heads" congregate en-masse and create great passion and noise as they watch their gladitorial heroes slay the evil foe under the guise of a rugby union match.

    June 7, 2008