Refine this word faster
Greave
Definitions
- 1 A bush; a tree; a grove. obsolete
"she fled into that covert greave"
- 2 A ditch or trench. obsolete
- 3 A piece of armour that protects the leg, especially the shin, and occasionally the tops of the feet. historical
"And through the stained windows bright, / From o'er the red-tiled eaves, / The sunlight blazed with colored light / On golden helms and greaves."
- 4 armor plate that protects legs below the knee wordnet
- 5 A bough; a branch. obsolete
- 1 To clean (a ship's bottom); to grave. transitive
Etymology
From Middle English greve, from Old English grǣfe, grǣfa (“bush, bramble, grove, thicket, copse, brush-wood (for burning), fuel”), probably related to Proto-Germanic *grōbō (“ditch, hole”). Cognate with Scots greve, greave (“grove”). Compare also Proto-Germanic *grainiz (“twig”), of unknown origin, whence Old Norse grein (“branch, bough”). Closely related to Old English grāf, grāfa (“grove”). See grove.
From Middle English greve, greyve, from Old English grǣfa, grēfa (“pit, cave, hole, grave, trench”), from Proto-Germanic *grēbō, an ablaut variant of to *grōbō (“pit, ditch”) (whence doublet of groove) , from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to dig, scratch, scrape”). Cognate with North Frisian groop (“pit, sewer, gutter”), Dutch groef (“pit, hole, gutter”), German Grube (“pit, hole”), Icelandic gröf (“pit, grave”). Also related to grave.
From Middle English greve, grayve, from Old French greve (“shin”), of uncertain origin; possibly from Egyptian Arabic جورب (“stocking, leg cover”). Watkins suggests a connection with greve (“part in the hair”), due to the resemblance of the medial ridge to a part in the hair, from graver (“to part (the hair); engrave”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *graban (“to engrave”); if so, related to Etymology 2 above.
Back-formation from greaves (“residue left after animal fat has been rendered”).
See also for "greave"
Next best steps
Mini challenge
Unscramble this word: greave