greave

• enPR: grēv, IPA^(key): /ɡɹiːv/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: grieve
• Rhymes: -iːv

From Middle English greve, from Old English grǣfe, grǣfa (“bush, bramble, grove, thicket, copse, brush-wood (for burning), fuel”), probably related to Proto-Germanic *grōbō (“ditch, hole”).

Cognate with Scots greve, greave (“grove”). Compare also Proto-Germanic *grainiz (“twig”), of unknown origin, whence Old Norse grein (“branch, bough”). Closely related to Old English grāf, grāfa (“grove”). See grove.

greave (plural greaves)

1. (obsolete) A bush; a tree; a grove.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     she fled into that covert greave

2. (obsolete) A bough; a branch.

From Middle English greve, greyve, from Old English grǣfa, grēfa (“pit, cave, hole, grave, trench”), from Proto-Germanic *grēbō, an ablaut variant of to *grōbō (“pit, ditch”) (whence doublet of groove) (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to dig, scratch, scrape”). Cognate with North Frisian groop (“pit, sewer, gutter”), Dutch groef (“pit, hole, gutter”), German Grube (“pit, hole”), Icelandic gröf (“pit, grave”). Also related to grave.

greave (plural greaves)

1. (obsolete) A ditch or trench.

From Middle English greve, grayve, from Old French greve (“shin”), of uncertain origin; possibly from Egyptian Arabic جورب (“stocking, leg cover”).^[1] Watkins suggests a connection with greve (“part in the hair”), due to the resemblance of the medial ridge to a part in the hair, from graver (“to part (the hair); engrave”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *graban (“to engrave”);^[2] if so, related to Etymology 2 above.

greave (plural greaves)

1. (historical) A piece of armour that protects the leg, especially the shin, and occasionally the tops of the feet.
   • 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC:

     And through the stained windows bright, / From o'er the red-tiled eaves, / The sunlight blazed with colored light / On golden helms and greaves.

   • 1891, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, The White Company, New York, N.Y., Boston, Mass.: Thomas Y[oung] Crowell & Company […], →OCLC:

     Then he cast off his breast-plate, thigh pieces, and greaves, while Alleyne followed his example.

• greeve

• cnemid

• greaved

Back-formation from greaves (“residue left after animal fat has been rendered”).

greave (third-person singular simple present greaves, present participle greaving, simple past and past participle greaved)

1. (nautical, transitive) To clean (a ship's bottom); to grave.

• greaves (“residue left after animal fat has been rendered”)

• regave