Defn: An English breed of black-faced hornless sheep similar to the Southdown, but larger, now extensively raised in many parts of the world.
SHROUD Shroud, n. Etym: [OE. shroud, shrud, schrud, AS. scr a garment, clothing; akin to Icel. skru 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.)
Defn: 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.)