Shroud (Hastings' Dictionary)

Coming from the Anglo-Sax. scrud, a gainient (connected with shred, as a portion tnrn off for some purpose), 'shroud' meant originally any piece of clothing. Thus Piers Pluwiimn, I'lol. i— ' I shope me in shroudes as I a shepe [ ■shepherd] were. Id habitti as an hereniit« unholy of workes ' ; •The verb .111 In the sense of 'fan,' 'winnow,* 'sift,' occurs (In (Jal and Piel) as follows : Ru S>, Is 30« 41'« (mountains as object). Jer 4" (Og. of purillcatlon, I Ijn'-) 16'(ng.

, see above), Ps 1308 (fig., 'thou siftest (or winnowest, i.e. ecrutini^est nar. rowly] my path and my couch,'— Driver, Par. Pmlt. ad l->c.) Elsewhere the root haw the sense of 'acatter,' 'disperse' (<^al, Piel) or ■ be scattered ' (Niph., Pual). and Chapman, Odi/sscys, vi. 274 — 'Give my nakedness Some shroud to shelter it, if to these seas Linen or woollen you have brought to cleanse.* Bnt the meaning was soon restricted to clothing for the dead, a winding-sheet. So usually ia Shaks.

, as Love's Labour's Lost, V. iL 479 — * Die when you will, a smock shall be your shroud.' There was, however, a side application of the word, to express covering or shelter of any kind. Thus Milton, Comus, 147 — ' Bun to your shrouds, within these brakes and trees ; and PL x. 1067— "The winds Blow moist and keen, shattering the gr.aceful locks Of these fair spreading trees : which bids us seek Some better shroud, some better warmth to cherish Our limbs benumb'd.'

This is the meaning of the word in Ezk 31', its only occurrence in AV, ' Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a sh.idowing shroud' (Heb. v-<n, a thicket or forest; LXX omits; \ u]g. frondibus nemorosn.9). J. Ha.stings.