Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To make, repair, or fasten by stitching, as with a needle and thread or a sewing machine.
  • intransitive verb To furnish with stitches for the purpose of closing, fastening, or attaching.
  • intransitive verb To work with a needle and thread or with a sewing machine.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To unite, join, or attach by means of a thread, twine, wire, or other flexible material, with or without the aid of a needle, awl, or other tool.
  • To put together or construct, or to repair, as a garment, by means of a needle and thread.
  • To serve at table, as by carving, tasting, etc.
  • noun Juice; broth; gravy; hence, a pottage; a made dish.
  • noun A drain; a sewer.
  • An obsolete spelling of sue.
  • An obsolete or dialectal preterit of sow.
  • To drain dry, as land; drain off, as water.
  • In falconry, to wipe: said of a hawk that cleans its beak.
  • To ooze out.
  • In bookbinding, to pass the thread separately through the creased fold of each section of (an unbound book).

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

  • transitive verb To unite or fasten together by stitches, as with a needle and thread.
  • transitive verb To close or stop by ssewing; -- often with up.
  • transitive verb To inclose by sewing; -- sometimes with up.
  • intransitive verb To practice sewing; to work with needle and thread.
  • transitive verb obsolete To drain, as a pond, for taking the fish.
  • transitive verb obsolete To follow; to pursue; to sue.
  • noun obsolete Juice; gravy; a seasoned dish; a delicacy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through (pieces of fabric) in order to join them together.
  • verb intransitive To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through pieces of fabric in order to join them together.
  • verb obsolete, transitive To drain, as a pond, for taking the fish.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb fasten by sewing; do needlework
  • verb create (clothes) with cloth

Etymologies

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

[Middle English sewen, from Old English seowian; see syū- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English sewen, seowen, sowen, from Old English sīwian, sēowian, sēowan ("to sew, mend, patch, knit together, link, unite"), from Proto-Germanic *siwjanan (“to sew”), from Proto-Indo-European *sīw- (“to sew”). Cognate with Scots sew ("to sew"), North Frisian saie, sei ("to sew"), Saterland Frisian säie ("to sew"), Danish sy, Polish szyć, Russian шить, Swedish sy. Related to seam.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Related to sewer ("a drain").

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