sleave

[Etym. doubtful; cf. Ger. schleife-a loop, a knot.] The knotted and entangled part of silk or thread; soft flo or unspun silk used for weaving. "As soft as sleave or sarcenet ever was, Whereon my Cloris her sweet self reposes." Drayton: The Muses Elysium , Nymph. 4. sleave-silk, s. Soft flo or unspun silk. sleave, v.t. [SLEAVE, 8.] To separate and divide as into threads. "The more subtle, and more hard to sleave a-two,... is that dominion over consciences." - Whitlock : Manner of the English , p. 360. sleaved, slēved, adj. [SLEAVE, v.] Raw, unspun, unwrought. "Eight wild men all appareled in green mo made with sleved silk."-Holinshed: Hist. England , p. 835. slēaz-i-ně , s . [Eng. sleazy : -ne .] The quality or state of being sleazy; thinne , flimsine . slēaz-ý, sleēz -ỹ, *slāzў, a. [Ger. schleiszig , schli ig =worn-out, threadbare, from schleiszen =to slit, to split, to decay.) 1. Thin; wanting in substance; flimsy. "I cannot well away with such sleazy stuff, with such cobweb compositions, where there is no strength of matter." Howell: Letters. ( Hall i well .) 2. Rough from projecting fibers, as yarn or twine made of inferior material.