sheet

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
sheet1

▶noun

• 1 a large rectangular piece of cotton or other fabric, used on a bed to cover the mattress or as a layer beneath blankets.

• 2 a broad flat piece of metal or glass.

• 3 a rectangular piece of paper.

  ■ a quantity of text or data on a sheet of paper.

  ■ Printing a flat piece of paper as opposed to a reel of continuous paper, the bound pages of a book, or a folded map.

  ■ a set of unseparated postage stamps.

• 4 an extensive unbroken surface area of something.

  ■ a broad moving mass of flames or water.

▶verb

• 1 cover with or wrap in a sheet of cloth.

• 2 (of rain) fall heavily.

– origin OE scēte, scīete, of Gmc origin; rel. to shoot.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
sheet2 Nautical

▶noun

• 1 a rope attached to the lower corner of a sail.

• 2 (sheets) the space at the bow or stern of an open boat.

▶verb (sheet something in/out) make a sail more or less taut.

■ (sheet something home) set a sail as flat as possible.

– phrases
two (or three) sheets to the wind informal drunk.

– origin OE scēata ‘lower corner of a sail’, of Gmc origin; rel. to sheet1.