shroud: [OE] Shroud originally meant simply ‘garment’ – a sense which survived into the early modern English period (‘My princely robes are laid aside, whose glittering pomp Diana’s shrouds supplies’, Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Nashe, Dido Queen of Carthage 1594). Not until the late 16th century did the modern meaning ‘winding-sheet’ begin to emerge. The word derives ultimately from the prehistoric West Germanic base *skraud-, *skreud-, *skrud- ‘cut’ (source also of English shred). => shred
shroud (n.)
Old English scrud "a garment, clothing, dress," from West Germanic *skruthan, from Proto-Germanic *skrud- "cut" (cognates: Old Norse skruð "shrouds of a ship, tackle, gear; furniture of a church," Danish, Swedish skrud "dress, attire"), from PIE *skreu- "to cut" (see shred (n.)).
Specific meaning "winding-sheet, cloth or sheet for burial," to which the word now is restricted, first attested 1560s. Sense of "strong rope supporting the mast of a ship" (mid-15c.) is from the notion of "clothing" a spar or mast; one without rigging was said to be naked.
shroud (v.)
c. 1300, "to clothe, to cover, protect," from Old English scrydan, scridan "to clothe, dress;" see shroud (n.). Meaning "to hide from view, conceal" (transitive) is attested from early 15c. Related: Shrouded; shrouding.
双语例句
1. The organization is cloaked in a shroud of secrecy.
这个组织笼罩着一种诡秘的气氛。
来自《权威词典》
2. A shroud of secrecy surrounds the plan.
这个计划神秘莫测.
来自《简明英汉词典》
3. You will have no pockets in your shroud.
你死后带不走财产.
来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
4. Ministers are as keen as ever to wrap their activities in a shroud of secrecy.
