sheet

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”), Swedish sköt (“sheet”), Icelandic skaut (“the corner of a cloth, a line from the foot of a sail, the skirt or sleeve of a garment, a hood”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ʃiːt/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ʃit/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio

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• Hyphenation: sheet
• Rhymes: -iːt

sheet (plural sheets)

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.

   • Bible, Acts x. 10, 11

     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.

   • Shakespeare

     If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me / In one of those same sheets.

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.

   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.

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 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 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. (nautical) 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.

7. (nautical, nonstandard) A sail.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

8. (curling) The area of ice on which the game of curling is played.
9. (nonstandard) A layer of veneer.
10. (figuratively) Precipitation of such quantity and force as to resemble a thin, virtually solid wall.
11. (geology) An extensive bed of an eruptive rock intruded between, or overlying, other strata.
12. (nautical) The space in the forward or after part of a boat where there are no rowers.

    fore sheets; stern sheets

• (piece of paper): page
• (line): rope
• (expanse of material): blanket, coat, coating, layer

• (thin layer of solid material): film
• (expanse of material): film

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

• sheet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

sheet (third-person singular simple present sheets, present participle sheeting, simple past and past participle sheeted)

1. (transitive) To cover or wrap with cloth, or paper, or other similar material.

   Remember to sheet the floor before you start painting.

   • Shakespeare

     Yea, like a stag, when snow the pasture sheets, / The barks of trees thou browsed'st.

2. (transitive) To form into sheets.
3. (intransitive) Of rain, or other precipitation, to pour heavily.

   We couldn't go out because the rain was sheeting down all day long.

4. (nautical) To trim a sail using a sheet.

• sheet in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• seeth, thees, these