sleeve

UK/sliːv//sliv/

sleeve noun: the part of a garment that covers the arm.

Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

sleeve (plural sleeves)

The part of a garment that covers the arm.
- The sleeves on my coat are too long.
A (usually tubular) covering or lining to protect a piece of machinery etc.
- This bearing requires a sleeve so the shaft will fit snugly.
A protective jacket or case, especially for a record, containing art and information about the contents; also the analogous leaflet found in a packaged CD.
A tattoo covering the whole arm.
A narrow channel of water.
- Even from Southhampton ' s shore through Wilts and Somerset The Attrebates in Bark unto the bank of Tames Betwixt the Celtic sleeve and the Sabrinian streams1612, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned...
Sleave; untwisted thread.
(British-Columbia) A serving of beer smaller than a pint, typically measuring between 12 and 16 ounces.
- For example, you may serve a patron a 12 oz sleeve of beer and a 5 oz glass of wine (or alternately 1.5 oz spirits) at the same time.2022 June, Manufacturer Terms and Conditions
(US) A long, cylindrical plastic bag of cookies or crackers, or a similar package of disposable drinking cups.
- A three-alarm fire tore through a family home on Newark's East Side early Saturday morning, completely gutting the two-story residence and tragically claiming a half-sleeve of Oreo cookies that was trapped inside a cupboard.2012, Half A Sleeve Of Oreos Lost In House Fire", The Onion, May 5, 2012
A double tube of copper into which the ends of bare wires are pushed so that when the tube is twisted an electrical connection is made. The joint thus made is called a McIntire joint.

Verb

sleeve (third-person singular simple present sleeves, present participle sleeving, simple past and past participle sleeved)

(transitive) To fit and attach a sleeve to an upper garment (e.g. to a shirt, blouse, sweater, jacket, coat, etc.) or to a folder.
(magic tricks) To hide something up one's sleeve.
- There are certain types of sleeving that are difficult to perform with the shirt sleeves down, and it is difficult and risky to attempt sleeving while wearing a shirt with "French" cuffs.2006, J. B. Bobo, Modern Coin Magic, →ISBN, page 99

sleeve meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

sleeve in Hindi

part of a garment that covers the arm: आस्तीन āstīn, बाँह bā̃h

sleeve in Urdu

part of a garment that covers the arm: آستین āstīn

sleeve in Bengali

part of a garment that covers the arm: আস্তিন astin

More languagesFewer languages

sleeve in Telugu: చేయి cēyi
sleeve in Malayalam: കുപ്പായക്കൈ, ഉടുപ്പിൻറെ കൈ, നാളിയ്ക്കുള്ളിലെ നാളി
sleeve in Kannada: ಉಡುಪಿನ ಕಯ್
sleeve in Punjabi: ਛੱਲਾ challā
sleeve in Gujarati: બાંય bā̃y
sleeve in Sanskrit: दोराच्छादन dorācchādana, बाहुवस्त्र bāhuvastra
sleeve in Sinhala: පූනුව pūnuwa, විල්ල willa
sleeve in Nepali: स्लिभ, स्लिभ गर्न
sleeve in Pashto: لستوڼی lastuṇe
sleeve in Tagalog: manggas
sleeve in Arabic: كُمّ kumm, رُدْن rudn
sleeve in Malay: lengan baju
sleeve in Indonesian: lengan baju, selongsong
sleeve in Persian: آستین âstin
sleeve in Thai: แขนเสื้อ kɛ̌ɛn-sʉ̂ʉa, แขน kɛ̌ɛn
sleeve in Vietnamese: tay áo
sleeve in Myanmar: အင်္ကျီလက် angkyilak, လက် lak, လက်မောင်း lakmaung:
Sindhi: آستين āḥtīna

Examples of sleeve in a sentence

To avoid passing on your illness, you should sneeze into your sleeve.
If we take up the sleeves a bit, that shirt will look much better on you.
Her left sleeve has more pooch at the shoulder than the right.

All 40 example sentences with sleeve

Forms of sleeve

Noun
plural	sleeves
Verb
third-person singular present	sleeves
present participle	sleeving
past participle	sleeved
past	sleeved

Past tense of sleeve: sleeved

Plural of sleeve: sleeves

Origin of sleeve

From Middle English sleve, slefe, from Old English slīef and slīefe (“sleeve”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Sleeuwe (“sleeve”), West Frisian slúf, Dutch sloof (“apron”), Low German sluve, dialectal German Schlaube. The Canadian sense of “measure smaller than a pint” is due to a former conflict between federal law and provincial law in British Columbia. According to federal law, a pint must be 20 imperial ounces (~568 ml), but according to provincial law at the time, the maximum individual serving size was 500 ml, so an individual portion could not be called a “pint” in British Columbia, and required a different term. The provincial law has been changed, allowing servings of up to 24 oz (~682 ml), but the term remains in use. The term sleeve itself for a cylindrical glass of beer is also found in the UK and Australia (as sleever), and may be due to stacked glasses resembling a sleeve.

Words formed from sleeve

Phrases with sleeve

27 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with sleeve

45 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sleeve

What does sleeve mean?: Sleeve means the part of a garment that covers the arm.
What is sleeve in Hindi?: Sleeve in Hindi is आस्तीन (āstīn), बाँह (bā̃h). See Sleeve meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is sleeve?: Sleeve can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce sleeve?: Sleeve is pronounced /sliːv/ (UK).
What is the plural of sleeve?: The plural of sleeve is sleeves.

Words near sleeve in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: sleeve (page history and authors); sleeve (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); చేయి (Telugu) (page history and authors); sleeve (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sleeve (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਛੱਲਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); બાંય (Gujarati) (page history and authors); sleeve (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-sleeve.ogg.

Cite this entry: “sleeve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sleeve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.