winding-sheet
(ˈwaɪndɪŋʃiːt)
[f. winding vbl. n.1 + sheet n.1]
1. A sheet in which a corpse is wrapped for burial; a shroud.
| c 1420 ? Lydg. Assembly of Gods 420 As he had bene a goste came in wyndyng shete. 1547 in Feuillerat Revels Edw. VI (1914) 21 One wyndyng shite of Incarnacion Lawnd strypide with crossis Crymson satten. 15.. Doun by ane Rever 54 in Dunbar's Poems (S.T.S.) 306 Thy windene scheit is nocht in weir. 1603 Dekker Wond. Year C 3 b, A thousand Coarses, some standing bolt vpright in their knotted winding sheetes. 1624 Capt. J. Smith Virginia ii. 35 They..rowle them in mats for their winding sheets. 1723–4 Burgh Rec. Stirling (1889) II. 357 A coffine..and a winning sheet. 1746 Hervey Medit. (1767) I. 72 Your Nobility arrayed in a Winding-sheet; your Grandeur mouldering in an Urn. 1869 H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey II. 92 The spectre had sworn by his winding-sheet..that he would do him no harm. |
| Comb. 1603 Dekker Wond. Year D 2 b, These winding⁓sheete-weauers. |
b. transf. and
fig.| 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, ii. v. 114 These armes of mine shall be thy winding sheet: My heart (sweet Boy) shall be thy Sepulcher. 1625 Bacon Ess., Viciss. Things (Arb.) 569 The great Winding-sheets, that burie all Things in Obliuion, are two; Deluges, and Earth-quakes. 1669 J. Owen Serm. 2 Sam. xxiii. 5 Wks. 1851 IX. 414 Let us..be content to see all our comforts in their winding-sheet every day. 1757 Gray Bard 50 Weave the warp, and weave the woof, The winding-sheet of Edward's race. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam ix. xxii, Disturbing not the leaves which are her winding⁓sheet. 1864 Lowell Fireside Trav. 147 Dead cedars, in winding-sheets of long gray moss. 1875 Manning Mission Holy Ghost ii. 59 He raised you from death, and loosed you from your winding-sheet of habitual sin. |
2. A mass of solidified drippings of grease clinging to the side of a candle, resembling a sheet folded in creases, and regarded in popular superstition as an omen of death or calamity.
| 1708 Brit. Apollo No. 17. 2/1 Letters, Winding Sheets, &c. in a Candle. 1819 Keats Party of Lovers 16 There's a large cauliflower in each candle. A winding sheet. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. Aunt Martha, She..sees..gifts in her finger-nails, letters and winding-sheets in the candle. 1882 Century Mag. Nov. 113/1 The candles..burned dim, with long winding-sheets clinging to them. |