sheet

I. noun Etymology: Middle English shete, from Old English scēte, scīete; akin to Old English scēat edge, Old High German scōz flap, skirt Date: before 12th century 1. a. a broad piece of cloth; especially bedsheet b. sail 1a(1) 2. a. (1) a usually rectangular piece of paper; especially one manufactured for printing (2) a rectangular piece of heavy paper with a plant specimen mounted on it <

an herbarium of 100,000 sheets

> b. a printed signature for a book especially before it has been folded, cut, or bound — usually used in plural c. a newspaper, periodical, or occasional publication <

a gossip sheet

> d. the unseparated postage stamps printed by one impression of a plate on a single piece of paper; also a pane of stamps 3. a broad stretch or surface of something <

a sheet of ice

> 4. a suspended or moving expanse (as of fire or rain) 5. a. a portion of something that is thin in comparison to its length and breadth b. a flat baking pan of tinned metal <

a cookie sheet

> 6. a surface or part of a surface in which it is possible to pass from any one point of it to any other without leaving the surface <

a hyperboloid of two sheets

> • sheetlike adjective II. adjective Date: 1582 1. rolled or spread out in a sheet 2. of, relating to, or concerned with the making of sheet metal III. verb Date: 1606 transitive verb 1. to cover with a sheet <

floors sheeted with dust

> 2. to furnish with sheets 3. to form into sheets intransitive verb to fall, spread, or flow in a sheet <

the rain sheeted against the windows

> • sheeter noun IV. noun Etymology: Middle English shete, from Old English scēata lower corner of a sail; akin to Old English scȳte sheet Date: 13th century 1. a rope or chain that regulates the angle at which a sail is set in relation to the wind 2. plural the spaces at either end of an open boat not occupied by thwarts ; foresheets and stern sheets together V. transitive verb Date: 1925 to move or set (a sail) by manipulation of a sheet