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Sheer   /ʃɪr/   Listen
adjective
Sheer  adj.  
1.
Bright; clear; pure; unmixed. "Sheer ale." "Thou sheer, immaculate, and silver fountain."
2.
Very thin or transparent; applied to fabrics; as, sheer muslin.
3.
Being only what it seems to be; obvious; simple; mere; downright; as, sheer folly; sheer nonsense. "A sheer impossibility." "It is not a sheer advantage to have several strings to one's bow."
4.
Stright up and down; vertical; prpendicular. "A sheer precipice of a thousand feet." "It was at least Nine roods of sheer ascent."


verb
Sheer  v. t.  To shear. (Obs.)


Sheer  v. i.  (past & past part. sheered; pres. part. sheering)  To decline or deviate from the line of the proper course; to turn aside; to swerve; as, a ship sheers from her course; a horse sheers at a bicycle.
To sheer off, to turn or move aside to a distance; to move away.
To sheer up, to approach obliquely.


noun
Sheer  n.  
1.
(Naut.)
(a)
The longitudinal upward curvature of the deck, gunwale, and lines of a vessel, as when viewed from the side.
(b)
The position of a vessel riding at single anchor and swinging clear of it.
2.
A turn or change in a course. "Give the canoe a sheer and get nearer to the shore."
3.
pl. Shears See Shear.
Sheer batten (Shipbuilding), a long strip of wood to guide the carpenters in following the sheer plan.
Sheer boom, a boom slanting across a stream to direct floating logs to one side.
Sheer hulk. See Shear hulk, under Hulk.
Sheer plan, or Sheer draught (Shipbuilding), a projection of the lines of a vessel on a vertical longitudinal plane passing through the middle line of the vessel.
Sheer pole (Naut.), an iron rod lashed to the shrouds just above the dead-eyes and parallel to the ratlines.
Sheer strake (Shipbuilding), the strake under the gunwale on the top side.
To break sheer (Naut.), to deviate from sheer, and risk fouling the anchor.


adverb
Sheer  adv.  Clean; quite; at once. (Obs.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Sheer" Quotes from Famous Books



... the tale of these early years should assume so controversial a tone. But where all, or almost all, is sheer conjecture, it is inevitable that the narrative must rest rather on argument than fact. The precise moment when Claverhouse transferred his services from the French to the Dutch flag is, in truth, ...
— Claverhouse • Mowbray Morris
... lack of material, but from sheer want of breath. She would have been invincible in conversation but for that fatal constitutional infirmity—shortness of breath. This brought her to a pause in the full ...
— The Cryptogram - A Novel • James De Mille
... Chancellor. "Sheer spring madness. You would carry her off, I dare say, and hide yourselves at the end of a ...
— Long Live the King • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... enraged and engrossed the mind of M. Gillenormand. He had not been able to sleep on the previous night, and he had been in a fever all day long. In the evening, he had gone to bed very early, recommending that everything in the house should be well barred, and he had fallen into a doze through sheer fatigue. ...
— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo
... well educated, and at the same time so simple and childishly devoted to old, plain Martha. She had never read letters like the mother's letter to her son, so beautiful, affectionate and elevating. He had always read them to her, and she had had to cry every time from sheer emotion. She had never before seen as beautiful linen as the boy had worn, and it had all been ...
— Cornelli • Johanna Spyri


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