sheet

Q: Is it correct to say "a shit of paper"?

No — say "a sheet of paper". Learners often confuse the long vowel sound in 'sheet' (/iː/) with the short vowel sound in the vulgar word 'shit' (/ɪ/).

n. countable

A2 Elementary Oxford US //ˈʃit// UK //ʃˈiːt// sheet

Archaic Dialect General-service Humorous Slang

n. A large piece of cloth that you put on a bed to sleep on or under. It can also mean a flat piece of paper.

n. A large rectangular piece of textile used as bedding. By extension, any thin, broad piece of material, such as paper, glass, or metal.

SIMPLE

I need to change the sheets on my bed.

CONTEXTUAL

Please hand me a clean sheet of paper so I can write down the address.

COMPLEX

A single sheet of ice covered the entire pond, glittering in the weak winter sun like a pane of flawed glass.

Synonyms

Etymology 1

From Middle English schete; partly from Old English sċīete (“a sheet, a piece of linen cloth”); partly from Old English sċēata (“a corner, angle; the lower corner of a sail, sheet”); and Old English sċēat (“a corner, angle”); all from Proto-Germanic skautijǭ, skautaz (“corner, wedge, lap”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewd- (“to throw, shoot, pursue, rush”). Cognate with North Frisian skut (“the fold of a garment, lap, coattail”), West Frisian skoat (“sheet; sail; lap”), Dutch schoot (“the fold of a garment, lap, sheet”), German Low German Schote (“a line from the foot of a sail”), German Schoß (“the fold of a garment, lap”), Danish skød (“lap, skirt”), Icelandic skaut (“the corner of a cloth, a line from the foot of a sail, the skirt or sleeve of a garment, a hood”), Norwegian skaut (“headdress”), Swedish sköt (“sheet”).

Etymology 2

A minced oath of shit.

Pitfall

a shit of papera sheet of paperLearners often confuse the long vowel sound in 'sheet' (/iː/) with the short vowel sound in the vulgar word 'shit' (/ɪ/).

Idioms8 entries