sheaf

[sheef] /ʃif/

noun, plural sheaves.

one of the bundles in which cereal plants, as wheat, rye, etc., are bound after reaping.

any bundle, cluster, or collection:

a sheaf of papers.

verb (used with object)

to bind (something) into a sheaf or sheaves.

Origin

before 900; Middle English shefe (noun), Old English schēaf; cognate with Dutch schoof sheaf, German Schaub wisp of straw, Old Norse skauf tail of a fox

Related forms

sheaflike, adjective

Examples from the web for sheaf

There is a sheaf of scholarship on gender difference in conversational styles.
His customers are satisfied, judging by the sheaf of testimonials on his desk.
He took me to his home, where he opened a drawer and pulled out a sheaf of rice paper that had been stapled together.
She was wearing a down parka and gripping a sheaf of papers.
The school wrote a sheaf of laudatory case studies about the company.
Armed with a sheaf of architectural drawings, he is trying to figure out a way to shift.
Thirty seamstresses bent their heads over a sheaf of drawings, and the clock began ticking toward another deadline.
Instead there was a sheaf of other letters, on good-quality cream-colored paper.
She dropped a sheaf of mail on the table without a glance.
The left foot of the eagle shall grasp a sheaf of arrows, the right foot shall grasp an olive branch showing three red berries.

British Dictionary definitions for sheaf

sheaf

/ʃiːf/

noun (pl) sheaves (ʃiːvz)

a bundle of reaped but unthreshed corn tied with one or two bonds

a bundle of objects tied together

the arrows contained in a quiver

verb

(transitive) to bind or tie into a sheaf

Word Origin

Old English sceaf, related to Old High German skoub sheaf, Old Norse skauf tail, Gothic skuft tuft of hair

Word Origin and History for sheaf

Old English sceaf (plural sceafas) "large bundle of corn," from Proto-Germanic *skauf- (cf. Old Saxon scof, Middle Dutch scoof, Dutch schoof, Old High German scoub "sheaf, bundle," German Schaub "sheaf;" Old Norse skauf "fox's tail;" Gothic skuft "hair on the head," German Schopf "tuft"), from PIE root *(s)keup- "cluster, tuft, hair of the head." Extended to bundles of things other than grain by c.1300. Also used in Middle English for "two dozen arrows." General sense of "a collection" is from 1728.