shroud

Etymology 1

From Middle English shroud, from Old English sċrūd, from Proto-Germanic *skrūdą. Cognate with Old Norse skrúð (“the shrouds of a ship”) ( > Danish, Norwegian skrud (“splendid attire”)).

noun

1. That which clothes, covers, conceals, or protects; a garment.
   swaddled, as new born, in sable shrouds 1636, George Sandys, Paraphrase upon the Psalms and Hymns dispersed throughout the Old and New Testaments
   Every time we came a research area, we had to pause while the scientists threw grey shrouds over prototypes that I wasn’t to see. April 25 2019, Samanth Subramanian, “Hand dryers v paper towels: the surprisingly dirty fight for the right to dry your hands”, in The Guardian
2. Especially, the dress for the dead; a winding sheet.
3. That which covers or shelters like a shroud.
4. A covered place used as a retreat or shelter, as a cave or den; also, a vault or crypt.
   The shroud to which he won / His fair-eyed oxen. c. 1618, George Chapman, Hymns of Homer
   a vault, or shroud, as under a church 1554, John Withals, A Dictionarie in English and Latine
5. (nautical) One of a set of ropes or cables (rigging) attaching a mast to the sides of a vessel or to another anchor point, serving to support the mast sideways; such rigging collectively.
6. One of the two annular plates at the periphery of a water wheel, which form the sides of the buckets; a shroud plate.
7. (astronautics) A streamlined protective covering used to protect the payload during a rocket-powered launch.

Etymology 2

From Middle English schrouden (> Anglo-Latin scrudāre), from Middle English schroud (“shroud”) (see above).

verb

1. To cover with a shroud.
2. To conceal or hide from view, as if by a shroud.
   The details of the plot were shrouded in mystery.
   The truth behind their weekend retreat was shrouded in obscurity.
3. To take shelter or harbour.

Etymology 3

Variant of shred.

noun

1. The branching top of a tree; foliage.
   Behold, the Assyrian was a Cedar in Lebanon with faire branches, and with a shadowing shrowd, and of an hie stature, and his top was among the thicke boughes. 1611, King James Version, “xxxi.iii”, in Ezekiel, Barker edition

verb

1. (transitive, UK, dialect) To lop the branches from (a tree).