sleeve
n. countablen. the part of a piece of clothing that covers your arm. It can be short, long, or even missing entirely.
n. the part of a garment that wholly or partly covers a person's arm. Also refers to a protective cover or case for an object, such as a record or a document.
I rolled up my sleeves before I started cooking.
The winter coat has thick, insulated sleeves to protect the wearer from freezing temperatures.
The tailor suggested shortening the sleeves by an inch to ensure the shirt cuffs would sit perfectly against the wrist.
From Middle English sleve, slefe, from Old English slīef and slīefe (“sleeve”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Sleeuwe (“sleeve”), West Frisian slúf, Dutch sloof (“apron”), Low German sluve, dialectal German Schlaube. The Canadian sense of “measure smaller than a pint” is due to a former conflict between federal law and provincial law in British Columbia. According to federal law, a pint must be 20 imperial ounces (~568 ml), but according to provincial law at the time, the maximum individual serving size was 500 ml, so an individual portion could not be called a “pint” in British Columbia, and required a different term. The provincial law has been changed, allowing servings of up to 24 oz (~682 ml), but the term remains in use. The term sleeve itself for a cylindrical glass of beer is also found in the UK and Australia (as sleever), and may be due to stacked glasses resembling a sleeve.
Commonly used in the idiom 'to have something up one's sleeve', meaning to have a secret plan.