Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To make, repair, or fasten by stitching, as with a needle and thread or a sewing machine.
  • intransitive verb To furnish with stitches for the purpose of closing, fastening, or attaching.
  • intransitive verb To work with a needle and thread or with a sewing machine.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Juice; broth; gravy; hence, a pottage; a made dish.
  • To unite, join, or attach by means of a thread, twine, wire, or other flexible material, with or without the aid of a needle, awl, or other tool.
  • To put together or construct, or to repair, as a garment, by means of a needle and thread.
  • noun A drain; a sewer.
  • To serve at table, as by carving, tasting, etc.
  • To drain dry, as land; drain off, as water.
  • In falconry, to wipe: said of a hawk that cleans its beak.
  • To ooze out.
  • An obsolete spelling of sue.
  • An obsolete or dialectal preterit of sow.
  • In bookbinding, to pass the thread separately through the creased fold of each section of (an unbound book).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete Juice; gravy; a seasoned dish; a delicacy.
  • transitive verb obsolete To follow; to pursue; to sue.
  • intransitive verb To practice sewing; to work with needle and thread.
  • transitive verb obsolete To drain, as a pond, for taking the fish.
  • transitive verb To unite or fasten together by stitches, as with a needle and thread.
  • transitive verb To close or stop by ssewing; -- often with up.
  • transitive verb To inclose by sewing; -- sometimes with up.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb obsolete, transitive To drain, as a pond, for taking the fish.
  • verb transitive To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through (pieces of fabric) in order to join them together.
  • verb intransitive To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through pieces of fabric in order to join them together.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb fasten by sewing; do needlework
  • verb create (clothes) with cloth

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English sewen, from Old English seowian; see syū- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Related to sewer ("a drain").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English sewen, seowen, sowen, from Old English sīwian, sēowian, sēowan ("to sew, mend, patch, knit together, link, unite"), from Proto-Germanic *siwjanan (“to sew”), from Proto-Indo-European *sīw- (“to sew”). Cognate with Scots sew ("to sew"), North Frisian saie, sei ("to sew"), Saterland Frisian säie ("to sew"), Danish sy, Polish szyć, Russian шить, Swedish sy. Related to seam.

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