Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Shroud \Shroud\ (shroud), n. [OE. shroud, shrud, schrud, AS.
   scr[=u]d a garment, clothing; akin to Icel. skru[eth] the
   shrouds of a ship, furniture of a church, a kind of stuff,
   Sw. skrud dress, attire, and E. shred. See {Shred}, and cf.
   {Shrood}.]
   1. That which clothes, covers, conceals, or protects; a
      garment. --Piers Plowman.

            Swaddled, as new born, in sable shrouds. --Sandys.

   2. Especially, the dress for the dead; a winding sheet. ``A
      dead man in his shroud.'' --Shak.

   3. That which covers or shelters like a shroud.

            Jura answers through her misty shroud. --Byron.

   4. A covered place used as a retreat or shelter, as a cave or
      den; also, a vault or crypt. [Obs.]

            The shroud to which he won His fair-eyed oxen.
                                                  --Chapman.

            A vault, or shroud, as under a church. --Withals.

   5. The branching top of a tree; foliage. [R.]

            The Assyrian wad a cedar in Lebanon, with fair
            branches and with a shadowing shroad. --Ezek. xxxi.
                                                  3.

   6. pl. (Naut.) A set of ropes serving as stays to support the
      masts. The lower shrouds are secured to the sides of
      vessels by heavy iron bolts and are passed around the head
      of the lower masts.

   7. (Mach.) One of the two annular plates at the periphery of
      a water wheel, which form the sides of the buckets; a
      shroud plate.

   {Bowsprit shrouds} (Naut.), ropes extending from the head of
      the bowsprit to the sides of the vessel.

   {Futtock shrouds} (Naut.), iron rods connecting the topmast
      rigging with the lower rigging, passing over the edge of
      the top.

   {Shroud plate}.
      (a) (Naut.) An iron plate extending from the dead-eyes to
          the ship's side. --Ham. Nav. Encyc.
      (b) (Mach.) A shroud. See def. 7, above.