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Sheaf vs Skein - What's the difference?

sheaf | skein |

As nouns the difference between sheaf and skein

is that sheaf is a quantity of the stalks and ears of wheat, rye, or other grain, bound together; a bundle of grain or straw while skein is a quantity of yarn, thread, or the like, put up together, after it is taken from the reel a skein of cotton yarn is formed by eighty turns of the thread round a fifty-four inch reel.

As verbs the difference between sheaf and skein

is that sheaf is to gather and bind into a sheaf; to make into sheaves; as, to sheaf wheat while skein is to wind or weave into a skein.

sheaf

English

Noun

(en-noun)
  • A quantity of the stalks and ears of wheat, rye, or other grain, bound together; a bundle of grain or straw.
  • * 1593 , (William Shakespeare), Titus Andronicus , Act V, Scene III, line 70:
    • O, let me teach you how to knit again / This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf , / These broken limbs again into one body.
  • * (rfdate) (John Dryden):
    • The reaper fills his greedy hands, / And binds the golden sheaves in brittle bands.
  • Any collection of things bound together; a bundle.
    • a sheaf of paper
  • A bundle of arrows sufficient to fill a quiver, or the allowance of each archer.
  • * (rfdate) (John Dryden):
    • The sheaf of arrows shook and rattled in the case.
  • A quantity of arrows, usually twenty-four.
  • * 1786 , Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons , page 34:
    • 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.
  • (mechanical) A sheave.
  • (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

    (en verb)
  • To gather and bind into a sheaf; to make into sheaves; as, to sheaf wheat.
  • To collect and bind cut grain, or the like; to make sheaves.
  • * 1599 , William Shakespeare, As You Like It , Act III, Scene II, line 107:
    • They that reap must sheaf and bind; Then to cart with Rosalind.
    English nouns with irregular plurals

    skein

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Alternative forms

    * (obsolete) skean

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A quantity of yarn, thread, or the like, put up together, after it is taken from the reel. A skein of cotton yarn is formed by eighty turns of the thread round a fifty-four inch reel.
  • (figuratively) A web, a weave, a tangle.
  • * 1923 , Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Creeping Man :
    • The practical application of what I have said is very close to the problem which I am investigating. It is a tangled skein , you understand. and I am looking for a loose end.
  • (wagonmaking) A metallic strengthening band or thimble on the wooden arm of an axle.
    • (Knight)
  • (zoology, provincial England) A group of wild fowl, (e.g. geese, goslings) when they are in flight.
  • (sports) A winning streak.

    • See also

    * gaggle * wedge

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To wind or weave into a skein
    • English collective nouns English words not following the I before E except after C rule ----