sheath
UK/ʃiːθ//ʃiθ/
sheath noun: a holster for a sword; a scabbard. Also the obsolete spelling of sheathe.
Noun
sheath (plural sheaths)
- A holster for a sword; a scabbard.
- Anything that has a similar shape to a scabbard that is used to hold an object that is longer than it is wide.
- The base of a leaf when sheathing or investing a branch or stem, as in grasses.
- The insulating outer cover of an electrical cable.
- One of the elytra of an insect.
- A tight-fitting dress.
- The foreskin of certain animals (for example, dogs and horses).
- A condom.
- Synonyms:
- condom, cum catcher, rubber
Also used as
sheath is also the obsolete spelling of sheathe.
sheath meaning in Vietnamese
sheath in Vietnamese
- long case
- vỏ
Examples of sheath in a sentence
- Should you EDC a bit kit? It may depend on your occupation and on what else is competing to earn a place in your sheath.
- The cyanobacteria grow filaments that are surrounded by a sticky gel-like sheath.
- Such microorganisms secrete mucilaginous polysaccharide sheaths that bind soil particles more tightly.
Synonyms of sheath
Antonyms
Forms of sheath
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | sheaths |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | sheaths |
| present participle | sheathing |
| past participle | sheathed |
| past | sheathed |
Origin of sheath
From Middle English sheth, shethe (“holder for a sword, knife, etc., scabbard, sheath”) [and other forms], from Old English sċēaþ (“sheath”), from Proto-West Germanic *skaiþiju, from Proto-Germanic *skaiþiz (“sheath; covering”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to dissect, split”) (possibly from the notion of a split stick with a sword inserted). The English word is cognate with Danish skede, Dutch schede, Icelandic skeið, German Scheide, Low German scheed, Norwegian skjede.
A variant of sheathe.
Words formed from sheath
- ensheath
- insheath
- resheath
- unsheath
- astrosheath
- desheath
- exsheath
- exsheathment
- femoral sheath
- leaf sheath
- magnetosheath
- medullary sheath
- myelin sheath
- penile sheath
- penis sheath
- presheath
- rhizosheath
- rice sheath mite
- root sheath
- Schwann's sheath
- sheathbill
- sheath cake
- sheath dress
- sheather
- sheathfish
- sheath knife
- sheathless
- sheathlike
- sheathotomy
- sheath-tail bat
- sheath-tailed bat
- sheath-tailed mouse
- sheathy
- sub
Phrases with sheath
Words that rhyme with sheath
Questions about sheath
- What does sheath mean?
- Sheath means a holster for a sword; a scabbard.
- What is sheath in Vietnamese?
- Sheath in Vietnamese is vỏ. See Sheath meaning in Vietnamese.
- What part of speech is sheath?
- Sheath is a noun.
- How do you pronounce sheath?
- Sheath is pronounced /ʃiːθ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of sheath?
- The plural of sheath is sheaths.
Words near sheath in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sheath (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-sheath.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sheath.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sheath. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.