SHROUD (O. Eng. scrud, garment; cf. Icel. skrudh, in the secondary sense of

See also:

• RIGGING (A.S. wrigan or wrihan, to clothe)

rigging, allied with " shred," O. Eng. screade, a piece,

See also:

• STRIP

strip)  , originally a word meaning garment, clothing or covering, but now particularly applied to the garment in which a dead body is wrapped preparatory to burial, a winding sheet . The shroud is usually a long linen sheet wrapping the entire body . This was formerly dipped in melted wax (Lat. cera), whence the name " cerecloth," often wrongly written cerecloth or searcloth and " cerements." In nautical usage the Icelandic meaning of skrudh, tackle, rigging of a ship, has been adopted in English; the " shrouds " of a ship are the set of ropes which stretch from the heads of a ship's masts to the sides as supports (see RIGGING) .