Definition of "sleave"

sleave

/sliːv/

verb
third-person singular simple present sleaves, present participle sleaving, simple past and past participle sleaved
1. (weaving) To separate, as threads; to divide, as a collection of threads.
noun
countable and uncountable, plural sleaves
1. The knotted or entangled part of silk or thread.
2. Silk not yet twisted; floss.
  Quotations
  Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care.
  c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii]