sew

Verb (1)

sew (third-person singular simple present sews, present participle sewing, simple past sewed, past participle sewn or sewed or (obsolete) sewen)

1. (transitive) 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.
2. (intransitive) To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through pieces of fabric in order to join them together.
3. (transitive) Followed by into: to enclose by sewing.
   • to sew money into a bag

Verb (2)

IPA/sjuː/

sew (third-person singular simple present sews, present participle sewing, simple past and past participle sewed)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To drain the water from.
   • 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
2. Of a ship, to be grounded.
   • 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...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

Noun

IPA/sjuː/

sew (plural sews)

1. (obsolete) Broth, gravy.
   • 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