Definitions

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

  • noun A fine thread or skein of thread.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Anything matted or raveled; hence, unspun silk; the knotted and entangled part of silk or thread.
  • To separate or divide, as a collection of threads, strands, or fibers.

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

  • noun The knotted or entangled part of silk or thread.
  • noun Silk not yet twisted; floss; -- called also sleave silk.
  • transitive verb To separate, as threads; to divide, as a collection of threads; to sley; -- a weaver's term.

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

  • verb weaving To separate, as threads; to divide, as a collection of threads.

Etymologies

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

[From Middle English *sleven, to disentangle, from Old English *slǣfan, to cut, from slāf, past tense of slīfan, to split.]

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Examples

  • Once I put a small garter Snake in a girl's muff, and it went up her sleave, which is nothing to some of the things she had done to me.

    Bab: a Sub-Deb Mary Roberts Rinehart 1917

  • Once I put a small garter Snake in a girl's muff, and it went up her sleave, which is nothing to some of the things she had done to me.

    Bab: A Sub-Deb 1917

  • Last edited by jase2472 on Thu Feb 21, 2008 6: 32 pm; edited 2 times in total excuse me? could you re-write that in english please? do you mean the flash with the black snake that is seen on the sleeves? not sure mate looked on army website for FTRS vacancies and it says CMT class 1 must have done Black Serpent course All I've managed to find out is that it's a course, where as the black snake on the sleave is a unit marking.

    Army Rumour Service 2010

  • Last edited by jase2472 on Thu Feb 21, 2008 6: 32 pm; edited 2 times in total excuse me? could you re-write that in english please? do you mean the flash with the black snake that is seen on the sleeves? not sure mate looked on army website for FTRS vacancies and it says CMT class 1 must have done Black Serpent course All I've managed to find out is that it's a course, where as the black snake on the sleave is a unit marking.

    Army Rumour Service 2010

  • Last edited by jase2472 on Thu Feb 21, 2008 6: 32 pm; edited 2 times in total excuse me? could you re-write that in english please? do you mean the flash with the black snake that is seen on the sleeves? not sure mate looked on army website for FTRS vacancies and it says CMT class 1 must have done Black Serpent course All I've managed to find out is that it's a course, where as the black snake on the sleave is a unit marking.

    Army Rumour Service 2010

  • Last edited by jase2472 on Thu Feb 21, 2008 6: 32 pm; edited 2 times in total excuse me? could you re-write that in english please? do you mean the flash with the black snake that is seen on the sleeves? not sure mate looked on army website for FTRS vacancies and it says CMT class 1 must have done Black Serpent course All I've managed to find out is that it's a course, where as the black snake on the sleave is a unit marking.

    Army Rumour Service 2010

  • The fashionable rolling travel satchel from Caribbean Joe looks is gorgeous tote by day, but comes with wheels and a trolly handle to become an easy carry-on with a laptop sleave and multiple compartments.

    Zorianna Kit: 2011 Academy Awards Gifting suites Zorianna Kit 2011

  • Even a reader who loves salt marshes, as I do, and who wants to lose herself in Mr. Lender's tender ­appreciation of them may find herself, instead, lost in the sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care.

    Coastal Disturbances Alexandra Mullen 2011

  • The fashionable rolling travel satchel from Caribbean Joe looks is gorgeous tote by day, but comes with wheels and a trolly handle to become an easy carry-on with a laptop sleave and multiple compartments.

    Zorianna Kit: 2011 Academy Awards Gifting suites Zorianna Kit 2011

  • People wear their religion on their sleave because they don't have a genuine faith.

    South Carolina's Christian question 2010

Comments

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  • (archaic) n. A fine thread or skein of thread.

    v. To divide or separate into filaments, as silk.

    August 1, 2007