SHEET • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Sheet

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/ʃit/ Listen

noun

Sheet n.

In general, a large, broad piece of anything thin, as paper, cloth, etc.; a broad, thin portion of any substance; an expanded superficies. Specifically:

(a)

A broad piece of cloth, usually linen or cotton, used for wrapping the body or for a covering; especially, one used as an article of bedding next to the body. "He fell into a trance, and saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners." "If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me In one of those same sheets."

(b)

A broad piece of paper, whether folded or unfolded, whether blank or written or printed upon; hence, a letter; a newspaper, etc.

(c)

A single signature of a book or a pamphlet; in pl., The book itself. "To this the following sheets are intended for a full and distinct answer."

(d)

A broad, thinly expanded portion of metal or other substance; as, a sheet of copper, of glass, or the like; a plate; a leaf.

(e)

A broad expanse of water, or the like. "The two beautiful sheets of water."

(f)

A sail.

(g)

(Geol.) An extensive bed of an eruptive rock intruded between, or overlying, other strata.

(Naut.)

(a)

A rope or chain which regulates the angle of adjustment of a sail in relation in relation to the wind; usually attached to the lower corner of a sail, or to a yard or a boom.

(b)

pl. The space in the forward or the after part of a boat where there are no rowers; as, fore sheets; stern sheets. Note: Sheet is often used adjectively, or in combination, to denote that the substance to the name of which it is prefixed is in the form of sheets, or thin plates or leaves; as, sheet brass, or sheet-brass; sheet glass, or sheet-glass; sheet gold, or sheet-gold; sheet iron, or sheet-iron, etc.

A sheet in the wind, half drunk. (Sailors' Slang)

Both sheets in the wind, very drunk. (Sailors' Slang)

In sheets, lying flat or expanded; not folded, or folded but not bound; said especially of printed sheets.

Sheet bend (Naut.), a bend or hitch used for temporarily fastening a rope to the bight of another rope or to an eye.

Sheet lightning, Sheet piling, etc. See under Lightning, Piling, etc.

verb

Sheet v. t. (past & past part. sheeted; pres. part. sheeting)

To furnish with a sheet or sheets; to wrap in, or cover with, a sheet, or as with a sheet. "The sheeted dead." "When snow the pasture sheets."

To expand, as a sheet. "The star shot flew from the welkin blue, As it fell from the sheeted sky."

To sheet home (Naut.), to haul upon a sheet until the sail is as flat, and the clew as near the wind, as possible.

See images of 'Sheet'

Etymology of 'Sheet'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sheet" Quotes from Famous Books

... steered for the narrow opening at the bottom of the port. On reaching it, the water deepened, but we were obliged to anchor, and sound the channel, before we succeeded in entering the inner harbour, which we found to be a spacious sheet of water, divided into two bays by a projecting cliffy point, which from its situation was called Middle Head. There we remained at anchor until the 23rd, during which time the shores of the inner harbour were examined, and visits made ...

— Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia - Performed between the years 1818 and 1822 • Phillip Parker King

... whom the city imprisoned because of his cunning, Who dreamed for years in a tower, Seizes this hour Of tumult and wind. He files through the rusted bar, Leans his face to the rain, laughs up at the night, Slides down the knotted sheet, swings over the wall, To fall to the street with a cat-like fall, Slinks round a quavering rim of windy light, And at last is gone, Leaving his empty cell for the pallor of ...

— The House of Dust - A Symphony • Conrad Aiken

... minutes unmoved through torrents of speech on every subject, from the Sustentation Fund to the Union between England and Scotland, and even under the picturesque eloquence of foreign deputies, whose names he invariably requested should be handed to him, written legibly on a sheet of paper. On two occasions only he ceased from writing: when Dr. Dowbiggin discussed a method of procedure—then he watched him over his spectacles in hope of a nice point; or when some enthusiastic brother would ...

— Kate Carnegie and Those Ministers • Ian Maclaren

... Post-offices, Collectorships, and sich, a laborin in the trough uv the sea, her bowsprit cove in, her top-gallant lanyards bustid, her jib-boom a flutterin in the gale, her capstan spliced, and her sheet anker torn to ribbons. (Not hevin bin a sailor, only ez a driver on the Wabash Kanal, it is possible my nautikle terms may not be altogether correct. But it makes no difference in the interior uv Kentucky.) She is strivin to make her harbor, and is workin manfully. Close behind ...

— "Swingin Round the Cirkle." • Petroleum V. Nasby

... and the railways, and, sometimes almost equally impressive, the public buildings. There are the beginnings of very costly Universities; and Regina has built a superb great House of Parliament, with a wide sheet of water in front of it, a ...

— Letters from America • Rupert Brooke

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