sheaf

Etymology

From Middle English scheef, from Old English sċēaf, from Proto-West Germanic *skaub, from Proto-Germanic *skauba- (“sheaf”). Cognates Akin to West Frisian skeaf (“sheaf”), Dutch schoof (“sheaf”), German Schaub, Old Norse skauf (“a fox's tail”). Compare further Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌿𐍆𐍄 (skuft, “hair of the head”), German Schopf (“tuft”).

noun

1. A quantity of the stalks and ears of wheat, rye, or other grain, bound together; a bundle of grain or straw.
2. Any collection of things bound together.
   a sheaf of paper
   Together the two men march up the aisle and mount the dais, and while Muspole shakes hands with the chairman and his lady, the major draws a sheaf of notes from a briefcase and lays them on the table. 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy
3. A bundle of arrows sufficient to fill a quiver, or the allowance of each archer.
   The sheaf of arrows shook, and rattled in the case. 1700, John Dryden, Palamon and Arcite
4. A quantity of arrows, usually twenty-four.
   Arrows were anciently made of reeds, afterwards of cornel wood, and occasionally of every species of wood: but according to Roger Ascham, ash was best; arrows were reckoned by sheaves, a sheaf consisted of twenty-four arrows. 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 34
5. (mechanical) A sheave.
6. (mathematics) An abstract construct in topology that associates data to the open sets of a topological space, together with well-defined restrictions from larger to smaller open sets, subject to the condition that compatible data on overlapping open sets corresponds, via the restrictions, to a unique datum on the union of the open sets.

verb

1. (transitive) To gather and bind into a sheaf; to make into sheaves
   to sheaf wheat
2. (intransitive) To collect and bind cut grain, or the like; to make sheaves.