sheet

A thin bed cloth used as a covering for a mattress or as a layer over the sleeper.

Noun

  1. A thin bed cloth used as a covering for a mattress or as a layer over the sleeper.
    • Use the sheets in the hall closet to make the bed.
    • 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. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker,...
    • If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me / In one of those same sheets. - c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies,...
  2. A piece of paper, usually rectangular, that has been prepared for writing, artwork, drafting, wrapping, manufacture of packaging (boxes, envelopes, etc.), and for other uses. The word does not include scraps and irregular small pieces destined to be recycled, used for stuffing or cushioning or paper mache, etc. In modern books, each sheet of paper is typically folded in half, to produce two leaves and four pages. In the absence of folding, "leaf" and "sheet" are equivalent.
    • A sheet of paper measuring eight and one-half inches wide by eleven inches high is a popular item in commerce.
    • Paper is designated “20 pound” if a stack (ream) of 500 sheets 22 inches by 17 inches weighs 20 pounds.

    Meronyms: leaf folium page

  3. A flat metal pan, often without raised edge, used for baking.
    • Place the rolls on the cookie sheet, edges touching, and bake for 10-11 minutes.
  4. A thin, flat piece or layer of solid material.
    • The glazer cut several panes from a large sheet of glass.
    • A sheet of that new silicon stuff is as good as a sheet of tinfoil to keep food from sticking in the baking pan.
  5. A broad, flat expanse or covering of a material on a surface.
    • Mud froze on the road in a solid sheet, then more rain froze into a sheet of ice on top of the mud!
  6. An expanse of something.
    • […] heavy sheets of rain with heavy gusts at N.E.; […] - 1855, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, page 514:
    • ... sheets of fire could be seen. The air became intensely hot and they knew that the forest-fire was upon them. - 1908, Pillar of Fire, page 15:
    • ... sheets of light which appear to be formed by a source at one location for horizontal sheets and another location for vertical sheets . This is the direct result of the relative displacement of the two scanners along...
  7. A line (rope) used to adjust the trim of a sail.
    • To be "three sheets to the wind" is to say that a four-cornered sail is tethered only by one sheet and thus the sail is useless.
  8. A sail.
    • Their folded Sheets dismiss the useless Air - 1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):
  9. The area of ice on which the game of curling is played.
  10. A layer of veneer.
  11. Precipitation of such quantity and force as to resemble a thin, virtually solid wall.
  12. An extensive bed of an eruptive rock intruded between, or overlying, other strata.

Origin

From Middle English schete; partly from Old English sċīete (“a sheet, a piece of linen cloth”); partly from Old English sċēata (“a corner, angle; the lower corner of a sail, sheet”); and Old English sċēat (“a corner, angle”); all from Proto-Germanic *skautijǭ, *skautaz (“corner, wedge, lap”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewd- (“to throw, shoot, pursue, rush”). Cognate with North Frisian skut (“the fold of a garment, lap, coattail”), West Frisian skoat (“sheet; sail; lap”), Dutch schoot (“the fold of a garment, lap, sheet”), German Low German Schote (“a line from the foot of a sail”), German Schoß (“the fold of a garment, lap”), Danish skød (“lap, skirt”), Icelandic skaut (“the corner of a cloth, a line from the foot of a sail, the skirt or sleeve of a garment, a hood”), Norwegian skaut (“headdress”), Swedish sköt (“sheet”).

Forms

sheets

Synonyms

page rope blanket coat coating layer

Hyponyms

balance sheet bedsheet bivouac sheet cap sheet clean sheet contour sheet crime sheet dope sheet fitted sheet miniature sheet pink sheet rate sheet ref sheet scandal sheet scratch sheet sheet music souvenir sheet tip sheet top sheet worksheet yellow sheet

Related

hit the sheets three sheets to the wind under the sheets white as a sheet

Derived

answer sheet a sheet in the wind a sheet in the wind's eye backsheet baking sheet balance the sheets base sheet bath sheet beat sheet bed sheet bedsheet beta-pleated sheet beta sheet between the sheets blanket sheet blank sheet bleed-sheet bottom sheet brag sheet broadsheet bubble sheet call sheet cascading style sheet chargesheet

Noun euphemistic, form of

  1. Euphemistic form of shit.
    • This sheet is disgusting!

Origin

A minced oath of shit.

Verb

  1. To cover or wrap with cloth, or paper, or other similar material.
    • Remember to sheet the floor before you start painting.
    • Yea, like a stag, when snow the pasture sheets, / The barks of trees thou browsed'st. - c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies,...
  2. To form into sheets.
  3. To pour heavily.
    • We couldn't go out because the rain was sheeting down all day long.
  4. To trim a sail using a sheet.

Forms

sheets sheeting sheeted