shroud

SHROUD, noun 1. A shelter; a cover; that which covers, conceals or protects.Swaddled, as new born, in sable shrouds. Sandys.2. The dress of the dead; a winding sheet.3. Shroud or shrouds of a ship, a range of large ropes extending from the head of a mast to the right and left sides of the ship, to support the mast; as the main shrouds; fore shrouds; mizen shrouds. There are also futtock shrouds, bowsprit shrouds, etc.4. A branch of a tree. [Not proper.]SHROUD, verb transitive 1. To cover; to shelter from danger or annoyance.Under your beams I will me safely shroud. Spenser.One of these trees with all its young ones, may shroud four hundred horsemen. Raleigh.2. To dress for the grave; to cover; as a dead body.The ancient Egyptian mummies were shrouded in several folds of linen besmeared with gums. Bacon.3. To cover; to conceal to hide; as, to be shrouded in darkness.-Some tempest rise, And blow out all the stars that light the skies, To shroud my name. Dryden.4. To defend; to protect by hiding.So Venus from prevailing Greeks did shroudThe hope of Rome, and saved him in a cloud. Waller.5. To overwhelm; as, to be shrouded in despair.6. To lop the branches of a tree. [Unusual or improper.]SHROUD, verb intransitive To take shelter or harbor.If your stray attendants be yet lodg'dOr shroud within these limits- Milton