scabbard

English

Bowie knife and sheath

Etymology

From Middle English scabard, scauberde, scauberk, scauberke, from Anglo-Norman eschaubert, escalberc, of Germanic origin, perhaps from Frankish *skarberg (“sheath”, literally “blade-protection”), from Proto-Germanic *skēriz (“blade, scissors”) + *bergaz (“shelter, protection, refuge”). See also hauberk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈskæb.əd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈskæb.ɚd/
• Rhymes: -æbə(ɹ)d
• Hyphenation: scab‧bard

Noun

scabbard (plural scabbards)

2. The sheath of a sword.
   • 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IX, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:

     I had had to discard my rifle before I commenced the rapid descent of the cliff, so that now I was armed only with a hunting knife, and this I whipped from its scabbard as Kho leaped toward me.

Translations

the sheath of a sword

• Albanian: mbulesë (sq) f, mill (sq), zgjebe (sq) f, këllëf (sq) m
• Arabic: غِمْد m (ḡimd), غِلَاف m (ḡilāf)
• Armenian: պատյան (hy) (patyan)
• Aromanian: teacã f
• Assamese: please add this translation if you can
• Azerbaijani: qın, kılıf
• Bashkir: ҡын (qın)
• Belarusian: но́жны f pl (nóžny), по́хва f (póxva), по́хвы f pl (póxvy)
• Bengali: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: ножница (bg) f (nožnica)
• Burmese: ဓားအိမ် (my) (dha:im)
• Catalan: beina (ca) f
• Chakma: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Literary Chinese: 韜 (tāo)

  Mandarin: 鞘 (zh) (qiào), 劍鞘／剑鞘 (jiànqiào), 刀鞘 (zh) (dāoqiào)

• Czech: pochva (cs) f
• Danish: skede (da) c
• Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: schede (nl) f
• Esperanto: glavingo (eo)
• Estonian: mõõgatupp
• Faroese: slíðri m
• Finnish: tuppi (fi), huotra (fi)
• French: fourreau (fr) m
• Galician: vaíña (gl) f
• Georgian: ქარქაში (karkaši)
• German: Schwertscheide (de) f, Scheide (de) f
• Gothic: 𐍆𐍉𐌳𐍂 n (fōdr)
• Greek: θηκάρι (el) n (thikári), θήκη (el) f (thíki)

  Ancient: ἔλυτρον n (élutron), κολεός m (koleós)

• Hebrew: נדן (he) m (nadan), נרתיק (he) m (nartik)
• Hindi: मियान (hi) m (miyān), म्यान (hi) m (myān)
• Hungarian: hüvely (hu), tok (hu)
• Icelandic: skálpur m, skeiðar (is) f pl
• Ido: gaino (io)
• Indonesian: sarung pedang (id)
• Iranun: please add this translation if you can
• Irish: truaill f
• Italian: fodero (it) m, guaina (it) f
• Japanese: 鞘 (ja) (さや, saya)
• Kazakh: қын (qyn), қынап (qynap)
• Khmer: ស្រោមដាវ (sraom daaw)
• Korean: 칼집 (ko) (kaljip), 대검집 (daegeomjip)
• Kyrgyz: кын (kın)
• Lao: ຝັກ (fak)
• Latin: vāgīna f
• Latvian: maksts (lv)
• Lithuanian: makštis m
• Low German: scheed
• Macedonian: канија f (kanija), корица f (korica), ножница f (nožnica)
• Maguindanao: please add this translation if you can
• Malay: please add this translation if you can
• Malayalam: വാളുറ (ml) (vāḷuṟa)
• Maltese: għant m
• Maranao: tagob, tagoban
• Mon: please add this translation if you can
• Mongolian: хуй (mn) (xuj)
• Ngazidja Comorian: wala class 9/10
• Northern Sami: please add this translation if you can
• Northern Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian: slire m or f, skjede m
• Ottoman Turkish: قین (kın), جفن (cefn)
• Persian: غلاف (fa) (ğelâf), قراب (fa), نیام (fa) (niyâm)
• Polish: pochwa (pl) f
• Portuguese: bainha (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਮਿਆਨ f (miāna)
• Rohingya: please add this translation if you can
• Romanian: teacă (ro) f
• Russian: но́жны (ru) n (nóžny)
• Scottish Gaelic: duille f, fraighe f, cochall m, faighean m, duille-sgeine f
• Serbo-Croatian: korice (sh) f

  Cyrillic: ножница f

  Roman: nožnica (sh) f

• Shan: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: pošva (sk) f
• Slovene: nožnica (sl) f
• Southern Altai: кын (kïn)
• Spanish: vaina (es) f
• Swedish: skida (sv) c, balja (sv) c, slida (sv) c
• Sylheti: please add this translation if you can
• Tagalog: kaluban, bayna
• Tajik: ғилоф (ġilof), наём (nayom)
• Thai: ฝัก (th) (fàk)
• Turkish: kın (tr), kılıf (tr)
• Turkmen: gyn
• Ukrainian: пі́хви f pl (píxvy), пі́хва f (píxva)
• Uyghur: قىن (qin), غىلاپ (ghilap)
• Uzbek: qin (uz), gʻilof (uz)
• Vietnamese: vỏ (vi), bao kiếm
• Volapük: denavead (vo)
• Welsh: gwain f
• Yakut: кыын (kıın)
• Yiddish: שייד f (sheyd)
• Zhuang: please add this translation if you can

Verb

scabbard (third-person singular simple present scabbards, present participle scabbarding, simple past and past participle scabbarded)

1. To put an object (especially a sword) into its scabbard.

   Suddenly he scabbarded his sabre.

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “scabbard”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.