sheet

¹ American  

[sheet] / ʃit /

noun

1. a large rectangular piece of cotton, linen, or other material used as an article of bedding, commonly spread in pairs so that one is immediately above and the other immediately below the sleeper.

2. a broad, relatively thin, surface, layer, or covering.

3. a relatively thin, usually rectangular form, piece, plate, or slab, as of photographic film, glass, metal, etc.

4. material, as metal or glass, in the form of broad, relatively thin pieces.

5. a sail, as on a ship or boat.

6. a rectangular piece of paper or parchment, especially one on which to write.

7. a newspaper or periodical.

8. Printing and Bookbinding.  a large, rectangular piece of printing paper, especially one for printing a complete signature.

9. Philately.  the impression from a plate or the like on a single sheet of paper before any division of the paper into individual stamps.

10. an extent, stretch, or expanse, as of fire or water.

    sheets of flame.

11. a thin, flat piece of metal or a very shallow pan on which to place food while baking.

12. Geology.  a more or less horizontal mass of rock, especially volcanic rock intruded between strata or poured out over a surface.

13. Mathematics.

    1. one of the separate pieces making up a geometrical surface.

       a hyperboloid of two sheets.

    2. one of the planes or pieces of planes making up a Riemann surface.

14. Crystallography.  a type of crystal structure, as in mica, in which certain atoms unite strongly in two dimensions to form a layer that is weakly joined to others.

---

verb (used with object)

1. to furnish with a sheet or sheets.

2. to wrap in a sheet.

3. to cover with a sheet or layer of something.

sheet ² American  

[sheet] / ʃit /

noun

1. Nautical.

   1. a rope or chain for extending the clews of a square sail along a yard.

   2. a rope for trimming a fore-and-aft sail.

   3. a rope or chain for extending the lee clew of a course.

---

verb (used with object)

1. Nautical.  to trim, extend, or secure by means of a sheet or sheets.

idioms

1. three sheets in / to the wind,  intoxicated.

sheet ¹ British  

/ ʃiːt /

noun

1. a large rectangular piece of cotton, linen, etc, generally one of a pair used as inner bedclothes

2. 1. a thin piece of a substance such as paper, glass, or metal, usually rectangular in form

   2. ( as modifier )

      sheet iron

3. a broad continuous surface; expanse or stretch

   a sheet of rain

4. a newspaper, esp a tabloid

5. a piece of printed paper to be folded into a section for a book

6. a page of stamps, usually of one denomination and already perforated

7. any thin tabular mass of rock covering a large area

---

verb

1. (tr) to provide with, cover, or wrap in a sheet

2. (intr) (of rain, snow, etc) to fall heavily

sheet ² British  

/ ʃiːt /

noun

1. nautical a line or rope for controlling the position of a sail relative to the wind

---

sheet More Idioms  

1. see three sheets to the wind; white as a sheet.

---

Other Word Forms

• sheetless adjective
• sheetlike adjective

Etymology

Origin of sheet¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English shete, shet(te) “length of cloth, piece of linen,” Old English scīte, scēte, scȳte, scīete “garment, cloth, napkin”

Origin of sheet²

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English shete, seate, shortening of Old English scēatlīne “sheet of a sail,” equivalent to scēat(a) “corner, angle, lower corner of a sail” + līne “rope”; cognate with Low German schote; sheet ¹, line ¹

Example Sentences

"There's been absolutely no summons sent to me, there's no charge sheet, I've had no correspondence from them - I'm not difficult to find, I'm a parliamentarian."

From BBC

Companies with a clear line of sight on AI profits are being rewarded, while those with weaker balance sheets and debt-paced business models are losing ground.

From Barron's

It's a clean sheet for Brighton and a good result.

From BBC

Cubicle dwellers at a Texas software company endure everyday corporate indignities, including paper jams and smug bosses asking if they got the memo about cover sheets for the TPS reports.

From The Wall Street Journal

The radiant orange-gold liquid can then be cast into sheets or rods.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• blanket
• coat
• foil
• layer
• leaf
• piece
• plate
• slab
• surface