sew

present singular third person sews · participle present sewing · past sewed · participle past sewn · participle past sewed · obsolete participle past sewen · first person past singular sewed · archaic present second person singular sewest · past second person singular sewed · archaic past second person singular sewedst · present singular third person sews · archaic present singular third person seweth · past singular third person sewed · past plural sewed · past subjunctive sewed · participle present sewing

1. transitiveTo use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through (pieces of fabric) in order to join them together.

   I sewed a button on.

   2 more examples

   Balls were first made of grass or leaves held together by strings, and later of pieces of animal skin sewn together and stuffed with feathers or hay.

   She [Kate Spade] took the label, which originally had been on the inside of the bag, and sewed it to the outside.

   2018 June 5, Jonah Engel Bromwich, Vanessa Friedman, Matthew Schneier, “Kate Spade, whose handbags carried women into adulthood, is dead at 55”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Jun 2018

2. intransitiveTo use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through pieces of fabric in order to join them together.
3. transitiveFollowed by into: to enclose by sewing.

   to sew money into a bag

present singular third person sews · participle present sewing · participle past sewed · past sewed

1. obsoletetransitiveTo drain the water from.

   Now geld with the gelder the ram and the bul, / sew ponds, amend dammes, and sel webster thy wul

   1573, Thomas Tusser, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, volume 8, page 40

   2 more examples

   […] accommodated a sluce to clense and sew the Pond, with a grate of wood to let out the wast, as in other stews and Vivaries.

   c. 1700, John Evelyn, chapter 9, in Elysium Britannicum, Or the Royal Gardens, published 1998, page 183

   If the Bank of a Pond sews, it will preserve the Fish in Frost; the Reason, as I imagine, is, because where the Water sews out, the Air will bubble in, which relieves the Fish; or perhaps it might put the Water into some Degree of Motion.

   1713, Roger North, A discourse of fish and fish-ponds

2. nauticalOf a ship, to be grounded.

   A ship resting upon the ground, where the water has fallen, so as to afford no hope of floating until lightened, or the return tide floats her, is said to be sewed, by as much as the difference between the surface of the water, and the ship's floating-mark.

   2008, William Henry Smyth, The Sailor's Word

   1 more example

   The upward reaction of the keel blocks may be considered as a negative weight in a moment calculation, producing a decrease in the ship's stability, and it is most important that the vessel remains stable until she takes the blocks along the full length of her keel, i.e. when she is sewed, for until this moment the side shores cannot be successfully rigged.

   1962, Theory and Practice of Seamanship, page 236

plural sews

1. obsoleteBroth, gravy.

   And than as for other Potages, ſtued Trypys, yt is dight redy. And than for to make the Numbleis in ſewe[…]

   c. 1555, John Lacy, “For to make Frumente”, in Wyl Bucke His Teſtament, London: Wyllam Copland

   2 more examples

   At Ewle we wonten gambole, daunce, to carrole, and to ſing, To haue gud ſpiced Sewe, and Roſte, and plum-pies for a King[…]

   1597, William Warner, chapter XXIIII, in Albions England a continued hiſtorie of the ſame kingdome […] , volume Book V, London: Ioan Broome, page 121

   If a thicke grewell or ſew be made thereof, together with floure, oile, and vinegre, ſo tempered as it may be ſupped[…]

   1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XX.] Chap. XVI..”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 2nd tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 63