Sheet /(?)/

Sheet

n.
  1. In general, a large, broad piece of anything thin, as paper, cloth, etc.; a broad, thin portion of any substance; an expanded superficies.
    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.
    — Acts x. 10, 11.
    If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me In one of those same sheets.
  2. A broad piece of paper, whether folded or unfolded, whether blank or written or printed upon; hence, a letter; a newspaper, etc.
    To this the following sheets are intended for a full and distinct answer.
    — Waterland.
  3. A broad, thinly expanded portion of metal or other substance; as, a sheet of copper, of glass, or the like; a plate; a leaf. (Geol.)
  4. A rope or chain which regulates the angle of adjustment of a sail in relation in relation to the wind; -- usually attached to the lower corner of a sail, or to a yard or a boom. (Naut.)

Phrases & Compounds
A sheet in the wind
half drunk.
Both sheets in the wind
very drunk.
In sheets
lying flat or expanded; not folded, or folded but not bound; -- said especially of printed sheets.
Sheet bend
a bend or hitch used for temporarily fastening a rope to the bight of another rope or to an eye.
Sheet lightning
See under Lightning, Piling, etc.

Sheet

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Sheeted; p. pr. & vb. n. Sheeting

  1. To furnish with a sheet or sheets; to wrap in, or cover with, a sheet, or as with a sheet.
  2. To expand, as a sheet.
    The star shot flew from the welkin blue, As it fell from the sheeted sky.
    — J. R. Drake.

Phrases & Compounds
To sheet home
to haul upon a sheet until the sail is as flat, and the clew as near the wind, as possible.