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Sheet vs Clew - What's the difference?

sheet | clew |

In nautical terms the difference between sheet and clew

is that sheet is to trim a sail using a sheet while clew is (transitive and intransitive) to raise the lower corner(s) of (a sail.

As nouns the difference between sheet and clew

is that sheet is a thin bed cloth used as a covering for a mattress or as a layer over the sleeper while clew is a roughly spherical mass or body.

As verbs the difference between sheet and clew

is that sheet is to cover or wrap with cloth, or paper, or other similar material while clew is to roll into a ball.

sheet

English

(wikipedia sheet)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A thin bed cloth used as a covering for a mattress or as a layer over the sleeper.
  • * Use the sheets in the hall closet to make the bed.
  • * Bible, Acts x. 10, 11
  • 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.
  • * Shakespeare
  • If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me / In one of those same sheets .
  • A piece of paper, usually rectangular, that has been prepared for writing, artwork, drafting, wrapping, manufacture of packaging (boxes, envelopes, etc.), and for other uses. The word does not include scraps and irregular small pieces destined to be recycled, used for stuffing or cushioning or paper mache, etc.
  • * A sheet of paper measuring eight and one-half inches wide by eleven inches high is a popular item in commerce.
  • * Paper is designated “20 pound” if a stack (ream) of 500 sheets 22 inches by 17 inches weighs 20 pounds.
  • A flat metal pan, often without raised edge, used for baking.
  • * Place the rolls on the cookie sheet , edges touching, and bake for 10-11 minutes.
  • A thin, flat layer of solid material.
  • * The glazer cut several panes from a large sheet of glass.
  • * A sheet''' of that new silicon stuff is as good as a '''sheet of tinfoil to keep food from sticking in the baking pan.
  • A broad, flat expanse of a material on a surface.
  • * Mud froze on the road in a solid sheet''', then more rain froze into a '''sheet of ice on top of the mud!
  • (nautical) A line (rope) used to adjust the trim of a sail.
  • * To be "three sheets to the wind" is to say that a four-cornered sail is tethered only by one sheet and thus the sail is useless.
  • (nautical, nonstandard) A sail.
  • (Dryden)
  • (curling) The area of ice on which the game of curling is played.
  • (nonstandard) A layer of veneer.
  • (figuratively) Precipitation of such quantity and force as to resemble a thin, virtually solid wall.
  • (geology) An extensive bed of an eruptive rock intruded between, or overlying, other strata.
  • (nautical) The space in the forward or after part of a boat where there are no rowers.
  • fore sheets'''; stern '''sheets

    Synonyms

    * (piece of paper) page * (line) rope * (expanse of material) layer, coat, coating, blanket

    Derived terms

    * balance sheet * bedsheet * bleed-sheet * broadsheet * cap sheet * clean sheet * contour sheet * dope sheet * fitted sheet * scandal sheet * scratch sheet * sheet music * stylesheet * tearsheet * three sheets to the wind * tip sheet * top sheet * under the sheets * white as a sheet * worksheet * yellow sheet

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cover or wrap with cloth, or paper, or other similar material.
  • Remember to sheet the floor before you start painting.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Yea, like a stag, when snow the pasture sheets , / The barks of trees thou browsed'st.
  • Of rain, or other precipitation, to pour heavily.
  • We couldn't go out because the rain was sheeting down all day long.
  • (nautical) To trim a sail using a sheet.
  • References

    *

    Anagrams

    * * * 1000 English basic words

    clew

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A roughly spherical mass or body.
  • * c. 1600 , , tr. Richard Surflet, Maison Rustique, or, The Countrie Farme :
  • If the whole troupe be diuided into many clewes , or round bunches, you need not then doubt but that there are many kings.
  • * 1796 , , The Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam :
  • Both these creatures, by forming themselves in a clew , have often more the appearance of excrescences in the bark, than that of animals.
  • (archaic) A ball of thread or yarn.
  • * c. 1604-5 , , All's Well That Ends Well , Act 1, Scene 3:
  • If it be ?o, you have wound a goodly clew :
    If it be not, for?wear't: howe'er, I charge thee,
  • * 1831 , :
  • A rare, precious, and never interrupted race of philosophers to whom wisdom, like another Ariadne, seems to have given a clew of thread which they have been walking along unwinding since the beginning of the world, through the labyrinth of human affairs.
  • * 1889 , ":
  • The Fairy Paribanou was at that time very hard at work, and, as she had several clews' of thread by her, she took up one, and, presenting it to Prince Ahmed, said: "First take this ' clew of thread...
  • * 1962 , , Pale Fire :
  • on one side of her lay a pair of carpet slippers and on the other a ball of red wool, the leading filament of which she would tug at every now and then with the immemorial elbow jerk of a Zemblan knitter to give a turn to her yarn clew and slacken the thread.
  • Yarn or thread as used to guide one's way through a maze or labyrinth; a guide, a clue.
  • *
  • Therto have I a remedie in my thoght,
    That, by a clewe of twyne, as he hath goon,
    The same wey he may returne anoon,
    Folwing alwey the threed, as he hath come.
  • * 1766 , , The Sermons of Mr. Yorick :
  • With this clew , let us endeavour to unravel this character of Herod as here given.
  • * 1841 , , The Murders in the Rue Morgue :
  • To this horrible mystery there is not as yet, we believe, the slightest clew .
  • * 1870 , , History of the Norman Conquest :
  • We may here have lighted on the clew to the great puzzle.
  • * 1917 , :
  • They had followed immediately behind him, thinking it barely possible that his actions might prove a clew to my whereabouts...
  • * 1923 , :
  • And I brought the only clew to be found.
  • * 1926 , Robertus Love, The Rise and Fall of Jesse James , University of Nebraska, 1990:
  • Not often did Jesse James leave a clew to his identity when he galloped away from a crime of violence, back into the mysterious Nowhere whence he came.
  • (nautical) The lower corner(s) of a sail to which a sheet is attached for trimming the sail (adjusting its position relative to the wind); the metal loop or cringle in the corner of the sail, to which the sheet is attached. On a triangular sail, the clew is the trailing corner relative to the wind direction.
  • * 1858 , Walter Mitchell,
  • 'Mid the rattle of blocks and the tramp of the crew,
    Hisses the rain of the rushing squall;
    The sails are aback from clew' to ' clew ,
    And now is the moment for "MAINSAIL, HAUL!"
  • * 1858 , The Atlantic Monthly , "":
  • "Clew'" is Saxon; "garnet" (from granato, a fruit) is Italian,—that is, the garnet- or pomegranate-shaped block fastened to the ' clew or corner of the courses, and hence the rope running through the block.
  • * 1894 , :
  • I went over and asked him to let down the clews or corners of the mainsail, which had been drawn up in order to lessen the useless flapping of the sail against the rigging.
  • * 1901 , :
  • "Run aft, Haldane, and you too, Spokeshave. Loosen the bunt of the mizzen-trysail and haul at the clew . That’ll bring her up to the wind fast enough, if the sail only stands it!"
  • (in the plural) The sheets so attached to a sail.
  • * 1913 ,
  • The canvas running up in a proud sweep,
    Wind-wrinkled at the clews , and white like lint,
  • (nautical, in the plural) The cords suspending a hammock.
  • * 2000 , Ralph W Danklefsen, The Navy I Remember , Xlibris 2000, p. 21:
  • He taught us how to attach the clews to the ends of the hammock and then lash it between jack stays.
  • * 1864 , Andrew Forrester, The Female Detective :
  • Now, the fact is, I had started because I thought I saw the end of a good clew .
  • * 1910 , "Duck Eats Yeast," The Yakima Herald :
  • Telltale marks around the pan of yeast gave him a clew to the trouble.
  • * Macaulay
  • The clew , without which it was perilous to enter the vast and intricate maze of Continental politics, was in his hands.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to roll into a ball
  • (nautical) (transitive and intransitive) to raise the lower corner(s) of (a sail)
  • See also

    * clew-garnet * clef * clue