sheen

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See also: Sheen

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English shene, schene, from Old English sċīene (beautiful, fair, bright, brilliant, light), from Proto-Germanic *skauniz (beautiful), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewh₁-. Cognate with Scots schene, scheine (beautiful, fair, attractive), Saterland Frisian skeen (clean, pure), West Frisian skjin (nice, clean), Dutch schoon (clean, beautiful, fair), German schön (beautiful), Danish skøn (beautiful), Swedish skön (beautiful, fine). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian hir (grace, blessing, goodwill), Finnish kaunis (beautiful). See also English show.

Adjective

sheen (comparative sheener, superlative sheenest)

  1. (rare, poetic) Beautiful, good-looking, attractive; radiant; shiny.
    • Fairfax
      Up rose each warrier bold and brave, / Glistening in filed steel and armor sheen.

Noun

sheen (plural sheens)

  1. Splendor; radiance; shininess.
    • 1946, Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan
      There is a greenish sheen across the shoulders of his greasy black suit, for the morning light has of a sudden begun to dance through the bay window.
  2. A thin layer of a substance (such as oil) spread on a solid or liquid surface.
    oil sheen
    • Lua error in Module:quote at line 2951: Parameter 1 is required.
    • 2017, Jeffrey Miller, Ann Powers, Introduction to Environmental Law: Cases and Materials on Water Pollution Control, West Academic (→ISBN)
      Take the floating scum or oil sheen prohibitions. A discharger or an inspector simply can look to see if scum, or an oil sheen, is coming from a particular discharge. Assume an oil sheen begins at a discharge—is the sheen caused by that []
Translations

Verb

sheen (third-person singular simple present sheens, present participle sheening, simple past and past participle sheened)

  1. To shine; to glisten.
    • Byron
      This town, / That, sheening far, celestial seems to be.
Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

sheen (plural sheens)

  1. The letter ش in the Arabic script.

Further reading