sheen

adj

1. (archaic, poetic, rare, usually)Beautiful, good-looking, attractive, fair; bright, radiant; shiny.

   “Up rose each warrier bold and brave, / Glistening in filed steel and armor sheen.”

   “The doleful Dumps I sing, and tearful Woes, Of Marian teeming with unlawful Throes: The sheenest Lass in Berkshire was she known, Of all that Butter fell to Reading Town: […]”

   “[…] Would'st hear, what dims those eyes so sheen?”

   “Where the fountains glisten sheenest […] (ch. 12).”

   “The woods, and vales were sheen as day, With light from its own living fountain; […]”

2. (archaic, poetic, rare, usually)Clear, pure, clean; noble, illustrious; (by extension) innocent, chaste.

   “[…] And all her crystal springs, whence clear and sheen Her brooks receive the wat'ry element, […]”

   “'Twas not when early flowers were springing, When skies were sheen, And wheat was green, […]”

   “[…] Hard by yon little fountain, clear and sheen, Whose swollen streamlet murmurs down the glade, […]”

   “Where rolled 'neath shimmering sun and shade, A forest brook the sheenest […]”

   “[…] The boom of bees, with wings as sheen as glass.”

noun

1. (also, countable, figuratively, uncountable)Splendor; 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.”

   “Mr. Leerhsen said in an interview that he wanted to write a book without the dutiful sheen of what he called “an official Bourdain product.””

2. (countable, uncountable)A thin layer of a substance (such as oil) spread on a solid or liquid surface.

   “oil sheen”

   “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.”

   “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 […]”

3. The letter ش in the Arabic script.

verb

1. (intransitive, poetic, rare)To shine; to glisten.

   “This town, / That, sheening far, celestial seems to be.”

name

1. An area of Greater London, officially East Sheen.
2. A village and civil parish in Staffordshire Moorlands district, Staffordshire, England, on the border with Derbyshire (OS grid ref SK1161).
3. A surname.