Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use sheen in a sentence

35 example sentences · adjective, noun, verb

Sheen means beautiful, good-looking, attractive, fair; bright, radiant; shiny. Example: “The green sheen on the surface is because of that painted box crocking off.”

Examples of sheen by meaning

adjectiveBeautiful, good-looking, attractive, fair; bright, radiant; shiny.

  • Out upon the sheen waters of the river that lay grey beneath the starlight crept many shadows, silent and mysterious.1912, Edwin Markham, The Real America in Romance
  • In the next instant, Isaac could see only a beautiful Polynesian woman with a yellow rose in her hair, wearing a very sheen red blouse.2015, Greg Foshee, A Crown of Jewels, a Crown of Thorns
  • Walt shovels a circle of snow in his backyard, then hoses the bare earth to a sheen ice blue.2020, Walter Wangerin Jr., Ascent/Descent, page 45

adjectiveClear, pure, clean; noble, illustrious; (by extension) innocent, chaste.

  • We traverse the very region of romance, high cliffs overhanging deep sheen waters, frequent bays, meandering shores fringed with dense forests - every tree more stately than the "Cedars of Lebanon."2022, J. McDonald, Hidden Treasures, page 8

nounSplendor; radiance; shininess.

  • 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.1946, Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan
  • Leerhsen said in an interview that he wanted to write a book without the dutiful sheen of what he called “an official Bourdain product.”2022 September 27, Kim Severson, “The Last, Painful Days of Anthony Bourdain”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

nounA thin layer of a substance (such as oil) spread on a solid or liquid surface.

  • Perhaps the simplest of sauces is the pat of butter dropped on a heap of hot vegetables, or stirred into rice or noodles, or drawn across the surface of an omelet or steak to give a sheen.2004, Harold McGee, chapter 1, in On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, →ISBN
  • Take the floating scum or oil sheen prohibitions.2017, Jeffrey Miller, Ann Powers, Introduction to Environmental Law: Cases and Materials on Water Pollution Control, West Academic, →ISBN

More sentences with sheen

  • The green sheen on the surface is because of that painted box crocking off.From the entry crock off
  • Something radiated from him like a sheen: a drive, a self assurance, a fixity of purpose.2026 February 17, Hugh Muir, “A historic force to be reckoned with, a giant to be mourned. Our panel pays tribute to the Rev Jesse…. From the entry radiate
  • I walked to the East River, to watch the crimsonish sheen fall over the water.2019, Jennifer duBois, The Spectators: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN, page 182. From the entry crimsonish
  • An apricot glaze adds sheen and a bit of tartness to the finished dessert.2012 April 5, James Newton, Moroccan Cookbook - Moroc Cuisine, Springwood emedia, →ISBN, page 86. From the entry creme patissiere
  • Rodriguez, adds a contemporary sheen to the chiming kulintang music of the Philippines.2007 April 27, The New York Times, “Jazz Listings”, in New York Times. From the entry kulintang
  • Margaret is in Paradise, "where she shineth sevenfold sheener than the sun."1983, original 1862, William Henry Schofield, English Literature, page 392. From the entry sheener
  • Over all the faces was a sheen of appetite for something.1974, Thea Astley, A Kindness Cup, Text Classics, published 2018, page 83. From the entry foxish
  • The most familiar aventurine is of a reddish-yellow color and has a coppery sheen.1957, Dorothy M[cKenney] Schlegel, “Semiprecious Gems”, in Gem Stones of the United States (Contributions to Economic Geology; Geological…. From the entry aventurine
  • Lipstick, creme base of satin sheen and incredible clinging power. 9 luscious shades.1946 February 25, “Louis Philippe”, in Life, page 20, column 1. From the entry creme-y
  • Shaggytuft, a high pile shaggy surfaced cotton rug with a lustrous sheen which is laundered and pre-shrunk.1938, Rug Profits, volume 28. From the entry shaggytuft
  • Unlike the spark-like bursts produced by disturbed dinoflagellates in a ship's wake, a milky sea is a continuous sheen.2026, Elise M. Thornton, The Glowing Dark: The Science of Bioluminescence and the Creatures That Make Their Own Light. From the entry milky sea
  • The pizzas—gigantic, floppy, with a hyperreal waxy sheen—are mythic.2023 June 9, Luke Winkie, “Our Greatest Fast-Food Joint Is Costco”, in Slate, archived from the original on 06 Sep 2023. From the entry waxy
  • A fossilized resin with a caramelesque sheen to it.2017 March 3, Akihito Toda, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo Switch, scene: Hyrule, level/area: "Amber" Item Description. From the entry caramelesque
  • A rabe hero glistens with a sheen of olive oil and comes on a soft roll, studded with golden-brown garlic cloves.2010, Anthony Di Renzo, Bitter Greens, page 96. From the entry rabe
  • Producer Rhett Davies played a key role in the band's sound, adding a cleaner, more Germanic Kraftwerkian sheen.2010, Stuart Lenig, The Twisted Tale of Glam Rock, page 79. From the entry Kraftwerkian
  • It glimmered in the sheen of an Arkansas toothpick and glowered in the shadows of a violent and reckless place.2010, Brooks Blevins, Arkansas/Arkansaw: How Bear Hunters, Hillbillies, and Good Ol' Boys Defined a State. From the entry Arkansas toothpick
  • DuBois has, however, approached the work in a radically unradical way, bringing a softening sheen of naturalism to its rumpled texture.2008 May 13, Charles Isherwood, “Shepard’s Debtors of 1978, Sounding Like Today’s Poor”, in New York Times. From the entry unradical
  • The warm afternoon sunlight poured through the lounge window, its beams resting on the tan sheen of her nyloned legs.2005, Roger Selegue, No Sun Without Shadow, page 8. From the entry nyloned
  • Fürst missed the commercial foresight to paint more of it and less of the dazzling sheen of waves.2003, Giovanni Bonello, Histories of Malta, volumes 4 (Convictions and Conjectures), Valletta, Malta: Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, →ISBN…. From the entry karozzin
  • Although a chromey sheen of overproduction mars “Smile”—a posthumous Tupac duet—Scarface delivers a genuinely moving requiem for his departed friend.1997, David Bry, “Scarface, ‘The Untouchable’”, in Vibe, page 154. From the entry chromey
  • Insider secret: Her makeup artist often uses Armani Fluid Sheer Glow Enhancer Highlighter to add that sheen without any OTT chunky glitters.2024 September 21, Heath Owens, “What to Wear to Sabrina Carpenter's 'Short N' Sweet' Tour”, in Cosmopolitan. From the entry ott
  • Some starlings are drab, but the incandescent glossy and plum-colored starlings (43) with their petroleum sheen more than make up for it.2000, Melissa Shales, Fodor’s Exploring South Africa, 3rd edition, New York, N.Y.: Fodor’s Travel Publications, →ISBN, page 273. From the entry plum-colored starling
  • Serious and varied, these stories are written in a fluent, often notional style, a sheen which sometimes reenforces and sometimes blurs their meaning and force.1964 October 18, Patrick White, “Meet Miss Docker, Miss Slattery and Some Other Friends”, in The New York Times, archived from the…. From the entry reenforce
  • The Stour is at its lowest ebb, and the sheen of the flats makes it difficult to tell where ground ends and water begins, out in the bay.2021, A. K. Blakemore, The Manningtree Witches, Granta Books, page 37. From the entry stour
  • When a commercial project is subjected to artwashing, the work and presence of artists and creative workers is used to add a cursory sheen to a place's transformation.2014 June 24, Feargus O'Sullivan, “The Pernicious Realities of 'Artwashing'”, in Bloomberg. From the entry artwashing
  • A break in a firewater line at BP Whiting Refinery caused water with an oil-like sheen to spread outside the refinery's walls along a section of Indianapolis Boulevard Tuesday night.2015 March 18, Karen Caffarini, “Cause of line break unknown at BP”, in Post-Tribune. From the entry firewater
  • Then, as if to contradict me, a stray sunbeam found the spot and sent curious bright glintings of sheen and shadow dancing and playing under the fallen roots and trunk.1902, William J. Long, School of the Woods. From the entry glinting

Meaning of sheen

  1. adjective Beautiful, good-looking, attractive, fair; bright, radiant; shiny.
  2. adjective Clear, pure, clean; noble, illustrious; (by extension) innocent, chaste.
  3. noun Splendor; radiance; shininess.

Full definition of sheen

Questions about sheen in a sentence

How do you use sheen in a sentence?
Sheen is used as an adjective, noun and verb. For example: “The green sheen on the surface is because of that painted box crocking off.”
What is a short sentence with sheen?
“Take the floating scum or oil sheen prohibitions.”
What does sheen mean?
Sheen means beautiful, good-looking, attractive, fair; bright, radiant; shiny.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sheen (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use sheen in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/sheen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.