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definitions

sheet anchor

See more synonyms for sheet anchor on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. Nautical. a large anchor used only in cases of emergency.
  2. a final reliance or resource, as when in danger.

Origin of sheet anchor

First recorded in 1485–95
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for sheet anchor

buffer, insurance, precaution, protection, safeguard, subsidy, benefits, parachute, anchor, bower, drogue

Examples from the Web for sheet anchor

Historical Examples of sheet anchor

  • He clung to all three, he grappled them to him; they were his sheet-anchor and his pole-star.

    The Scapegoat

    Hall Caine

  • We should be in a sweet quandary if anything happened to our sheet-anchor here.

    Shawl-Straps

    Louisa M. Alcott

  • The belief which had been her sheet-anchor in hoping for forgiveness had proved false.

  • To those who had been with him before he was like a sheet-anchor in a storm.

    Charles Frohman: Manager and Man

    Isaac Frederick Marcosson and Daniel Frohman

  • His Irish experience continued to be the sheet-anchor of his ascendency with the Queen.

    Sir Walter Ralegh

    William Stebbing

British Dictionary definitions for sheet anchor

sheet anchor

noun
  1. nautical a large strong anchor for use in emergency
  2. a person or thing to be relied upon in an emergency

Word Origin for sheet anchor

C17: from earlier shute anker, from shoot (obsolete) the sheet of a sail
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012