shroud

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
shroud/ʃraʊd/

▶noun

• 1 a length of cloth or an enveloping garment in which a dead person is wrapped for burial.

• 2 a thing that envelops or obscures: a shroud of mist.

• 3 technical a protective casing or cover.

• 4 (shrouds) a set of ropes forming part of the standing rigging of a sailing boat and supporting the mast or topmast.

  ■ (also shroud line) each of the lines joining the canopy of a parachute to the harness.

▶verb

• 1 wrap or dress in a shroud.

• 2 cover or envelop so as to conceal from view.

– origin OE scrūd ‘garment, clothing’, of Gmc origin, from a base meaning ‘cut’; rel. to shred.