▪ I. sheeting, vbl. n.
(ˈʃiːtɪŋ)
[f. sheet n.1 + -ing1.]
1. Stout cloth of linen or cotton, such as is used for bed linen, etc.
| 1711 Lond. Gaz. No. 4847/3 Irish Sheeting and Ticking. 1796 Mrs. Glasse's Cookery xviii. 291 Roll it up tight, bind it round with sheeting, and boil it four hours. 1844 Ladies' Hand-bk. Haberdashery 26 Sheeting. This is a strong woven cotton, and is frequently used as a substitute for linen. 1848 Kingsley ‘Bad Squire’ xv, By dealing out flannel and sheeting A little below cost price. 1853 Ure Dict. Arts I. 770 Sheetings and towellings. 1877 J. W. Hayes Draper & Haberdasher (ed. 4) 96 Sheetings are a stout article, made in Wigans, Croydons, and Double Warps from two or three yards wide. 1910 Encycl. Brit. VII. 277/1 Sheeting has two meanings in the cotton trade: (1) the ordinary bed sheeting, usually a stout cloth of anything from 45 in. to 120 in. wide..; (2) a grey calico, heavier than a shirting..usually 36 in. by 40 yd. |
2. a. A lining or covering of timber or metal, laid on a surface as a protection.
| 1776 G. Semple Building in Water 32 The sheeting nailed on the Piles. 1870 Milit. Engin. I. ii. 101 The wooden linings are of two descriptions, viz., cases, or frames and sheeting. |
b. A layer (of soil or stones).
| 1891 Scott. Leader 6 Nov., Laying down sheetings of stones in certain districts. 1895 Outing XXVII. 236/2 Rocks, which, having lost their thin sheeting of soil. |
c. A form of batting (Knight Dict. Mech.).
(See batting vbl. n. 2.)
3. The action or process of making (lead) into sheets; the action of covering with sheets or laying in sheets.
| 1778 Engl. Gazetteer s.v. Mendip, The lead is..not so proper for sheeting, because, when melted, it runs into knots. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Sheeting, (Tobacco), laying the leaves flat to be piled in books. 1884 Manch. Exam. 31 May, 5/1 Clerkage, checking, and weighing, as well as sheeting. |
4. Geol. The occurrence or development of closely spaced, approximately parallel fractures or joints in rock. Freq. attrib.
| 1899 Trans. Inst. Mining & Metallurgy VIII. 67 The multiple fracturing, parallel to the walls of the dyke, is a characteristic feature of such lodes... This feature can be described as a sheeting of the rock. 1903 [see sheeted ppl. a. 5]. 1912 E. C. Eckel Building Stones & Clays iii. 39 Geologists..ascribe some or all sheeting structure to strains induced during the original cooling of the mass, or to the effects of later external stresses. 1934 O. Bowles Stone Industries viii. 108 Widely separated sheeting planes occur at a depth of 250 feet at Quincy, Mass. 1965 A. Holmes Princ. Physical Geol. (ed. 2) ix. 217 The sheeting or sheet structure that is often seen in exposures of granitic and other plutonic intrusions. |
5. attrib., as (sense 2) sheeting deal, sheeting plank; sheeting-machine (see quots.); sheeting-pile = sheet-pile (see sheet n.1 13).
| 1837 J. T. Smith tr. Vicat's Mortars 77 note, The space on which the foundation is to rest, is first surrounded by sheeting piles. 1838 Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 203/1 The ‘sheeting’ planks, or (in Lancashire phrase) the ‘lagging’. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 972 This sheeting deal is always applied in pieces laid endwise. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Sheeting-machine, a wool-combing machine for bringing the fiber into an even sheet. Ibid., Sheeting-machine, a machine for smoothing tobacco-leaves. |
▪ II. ˈsheeting, ppl. a.
[f. sheet v.1 + -ing2.]
Swathing, enfolding.
| 1592 Arden of Feversham 1081 Sheeting darkness over⁓hangs the earth. |
Add: 2. Of rain, etc.: falling in a sheet or sheets, torrential. Cf. sheeted ppl. a. 2.
| 1940 ‘M. Innes’ Secret Vanguard xiii. 138 It had been quenched by a downpour of rain. She was standing..in sheeting torrents of water. 1981 M. Hatfield Spy Fever 10 He..stumbled through the sheeting rain. |