sheet1

 
Pronunciation: /ʃiːt/

noun

  • 1a large rectangular piece of cotton or other fabric, used on a bed to cover the mattress and as a layer beneath blankets when these are used.
  • 2a rectangular piece of paper, especially one of a standard size produced commercially and used for writing and printing on: a sheet of unmarked paper
  • a quantity of text or other information contained on a sheet of paper: he produced yet another sheet of figures
  • Printing a flat piece of paper as opposed to a reel of continuous paper, the bound pages of a book, or a folded map.
  • all the postage stamps printed on one piece of paper: a sheet of 1p stamps
  • a map, especially one part of a series covering a larger area.
  • 3a broad flat piece of material such as metal or glass: the small pipe has been formed from a flat sheet of bronze
  • an extensive unbroken surface area of something: Loch Affric is a lovely sheet of water among trees [as modifier]: sheet ice
  • a broad moving mass of flames or water: the rain was still falling in sheets

verb

  • 1 [with object] cover with or wrap in a sheet of cloth: lorry drivers don’t sheet their loads
  • 2 [no object, with adverbial of direction] (of rain) fall in large quantities: rain sheeted down

Phrases

(as) white as a sheet

(of a person) very pale, especially from shock.

Origin:

Old English scēte, scīete, of Germanic origin; related to the verb shoot in its primary sense 'to project'