SWATHE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does swathe mean? 

• SWATHE (noun)
  The noun SWATHE has 1 sense:

1. an enveloping bandage

  Familiarity information: SWATHE used as a noun is very rare.

• SWATHE (verb)
  The verb SWATHE has 1 sense:

1. wrap in swaddling clothes

  Familiarity information: SWATHE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SWATHE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An enveloping bandage

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

swathe; wrapping

Hypernyms ("swathe" is a kind of...):

bandage; patch (a piece of soft material that covers and protects an injured part of the body)

Derivation:

swathe (wrap in swaddling clothes)

• SWATHE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they swathe    ... he / she / it swathes   
Past simple: swathed   
Past participle: swathed   
-ing form: swathing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Wrap in swaddling clothes

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

swaddle; swathe

Context example:

swaddled the infant

Hypernyms (to "swathe" is one way to...):

bind (make fast; tie or secure, with or as if with a rope)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

swathe (an enveloping bandage)

swathing (cloth coverings wrapped around something (as a wound or a baby))

 Context examples 

“But how came this?” asked the young clerk, who could scarce keep from laughter at the sight of the hot little man so swathed in the great white cloak.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It's the latest of a swathe of evidence suggesting the gut microbiome could play a powerful role in weight regulation.

(Supplements of 'Good Bacteria' Can Enhance Weight Loss in Dieters, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Standing in the window we saw that his left hand was swathed in a bandage and that his face was very grim and pale.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But as my aunt had swathed me up, I made no complaint of being inconvenienced.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

While Johansen was summoning the watch below, a couple of sailors, under the captain’s direction, laid the canvas-swathed corpse upon a hatch-cover.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Why, Miss Eyre, though Mr. Rochester's visits here are rare, they are always sudden and unexpected; and as I observed that it put him out to find everything swathed up, and to have a bustle of arrangement on his arrival, I thought it best to keep the rooms in readiness.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Using a novel, helicopter-borne sensor to penetrate the surface of large swathes of terrain, a team of researchers has gathered compelling evidence that beneath Antarctica's ice-free McMurdo Dry Valleys lies a salty aquifer that may support previously unknown microbial ecosystems and retain evidence of ancient climate change.

(Discovered deep under Antarctic surface: Extensive, salty aquifer and potentially vast microbial habitat, NSF)

Martin, after a few instructions, sorted the great heaps of soiled clothes, while Joe started the masher and made up fresh supplies of soft- soap, compounded of biting chemicals that compelled him to swathe his mouth and nostrils and eyes in bath-towels till he resembled a mummy.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

His swarthy cheek and raven black hair spoke of the fiery south, and he wore his long black cloak swathed across his chest and over his shoulders in a graceful sweeping fashion, which was neither English nor French.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And what little there was,—the slapping of a few reef-points and the creaking of a sheave in a block or two,—was ghostly under the hollow echoing pall in which we were swathed.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)