[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

sheer \sheer\, adv.
   clean; quite; at once. obs. --milton.
   1913 webster

[2] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

sheer \sheer\, v. t. see shear.
   to shear. obs. --dryden.
   1913 webster
see also:
shear 

[3] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

sheer \sheer\, v. i. imp.  p. p. sheered; p. pr.  vb. n.
   sheering. d. sheren to shear, cut, withdraw, warp. see
   shear.
   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.
   1913 webster

   to sheer off, to turn or move aside to a distance; to move
      away.

   to sheer up, to approach obliquely.
      1913 webster
see also:
sheered sheering shear to sheer off to sheer up 

[4] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

sheer \sheer\, a. oe. shere, skere, pure, bright, icel. sk?rr;
   akin to skimacrr, as. scimacr, os. skimacri, mhg.
   schimacr, g. schier, dan. sk?r, sw. skaumr, goth. skeirs
   clear, and e. shine. root157. see shine, v. i.
   1. bright; clear; pure; unmixed. "sheer ale." --shak.
      1913 webster

            thou sheer, immaculate, and silver fountain. --shak.
      1913 webster

   2. very thin or transparent; -- applied to fabrics; as, sheer
      muslin.
      1913 webster

   3. being only what it seems to be; obvious; simple; mere;
      downright; as, sheer folly; sheer nonsense. "a sheer
      impossibility." --de quincey.
      1913 webster

            it is not a sheer advantage to have several strings
            to one's bow.                         --m. arnold.
      1913 webster

   4. stright up and down; vertical; prpendicular.
      1913 webster

            a sheer precipice of a thousand feet. --j. d.
                                                  hooker.
      1913 webster

            it was at least
            nine roods of sheer ascent.           --wordsworth.
      1913 webster
see also:
shine 

[5] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

sheer \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.
          1913 webster

   2. a turn or change in a course.
      1913 webster

            give the canoe a sheer and get nearer to the shore.
                                                  --cooper.
      1913 webster

   3. pl. shears see shear.
      1913 webster

   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. --totten.

   to break sheer naut., to deviate from sheer, and risk
      fouling the anchor.
      1913 webster
see also:
shear sheer batten sheer boom sheer hulk shear hulk hulk 
sheer plan sheer draught sheer pole sheer strake to break sheer 

[6] : WordNet (r) 2.0

sheer
     adj 1: complete and without restriction or qualification; sometimes
            used informally as intensifiers; "absolute freedom";
            "an absolute dimwit"; "a downright lie"; "out-and-out
            mayhem"; "an out-and-out lie"; "a rank outsider";
            "many right-down vices"; "got the job through sheer
            persistence"; "sheer stupidity" syn: absolute, downright,
             out-and-outa, ranka, right-down, sheera
     2: not mixed with extraneous elements; "plain water"; "sheer
        wine"; "not an unmixed blessing" syn: plain, unmingled,
         unmixed
     3: very steep; having a prominent and almost vertical front; "a
        bluff headland"; "where the bold chalk cliffs of england
        rise"; "a sheer descent of rock" syn: bluff, bold
     4: so thin as to transmit light; "a hat with a diaphanous
        veil"; "filmy wings of a moth"; "gauzy clouds of dandelion
        down"; "gossamer cobwebs"; "sheer silk stockings";
        "transparent chiffon"; "vaporous silks" syn: diaphanous,
         filmy, gauzy, gossamer, see-through, transparent,
         vaporous, cobwebby
     adv 1: straight up or down without a break syn: perpendicularly
     2: directly; "he fell sheer into the water"
     v 1: turn sharply; change direction abruptly; "the car cut to the
          left at the intersection"; "the motorbike veered to the
          right" syn: swerve, curve, trend, veer, slue,
           slew, cut
     2: cause to sheer; "she sheered her car around the obstacle"
see also:
absolute downright out-and-outa ranka right-down sheera 
plain unmingled unmixed bluff bold 
diaphanous filmy gauzy gossamer see-through 
transparent vaporous cobwebby perpendicularly swerve 
curve trend veer slue slew 
cut 

[7] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

263 moby thesaurus words for "sheer":
   aberrancy, aberration, about ship, abrupt, absolute, absolutely,
   airy, all-embracing, all-encompassing, all-out, all-pervading,
   angle, angle off, aplomb, arduous, arrant, at right angles, avert,
   back and fill, bare, bear away, bear off, bear to starboard, beat,
   beat about, bend, bent, bias, blasted, blessed, bluff, bold, born,
   box off, branch off, branching off, break, breakneck, bring about,
   bring round, broad-based, cant, cant round, cast, cast about,
   change course, change the bearing, change the heading, chiffon,
   circuitousness, clarified, clean, clear, clear as crystal,
   come about, complete, comprehensive, confounded, congenital,
   consummate, corner, crook, crystal, crystal-clear, crystalline,
   curve, declination, deep-dyed, deflect, depart from, departure,
   detour, deviance, deviancy, deviate, deviation, deviousness,
   diaphane, diaphanous, digress, digression, dip, discursion,
   distilled, divagate, divagation, divaricate, divarication, diverge,
   divergence, diversion, divert, dogleg, double, double a point,
   downright, drift, drifting, dyed-in-the-wool, egregious, errantry,
   excursion, excursus, exhaustive, exorbitation, fetch about, filmy,
   flimsy, gauzy, go about, gossamer, gossamery, gross, gybe, hairpin,
   headlong, heave round, heel, indirection, infernal, intensive,
   irretrievably, irrevocably, jibe, jibe all standing,
   light-pervious, limpid, lucid, lurch, mere, miss stays, naked,
   neat, nonopaque, oblique, obliquity, omnibus, omnipresent,
   orthodiagonal, orthogonal, out-and-out, outright, peekaboo,
   pellucid, pererration, perfect, perfectly, perpendicular,
   perpendicularly, pervasive, pivot, plain, plumb, plunging, ply,
   precipitate, precipitous, pure, purified, put about, put back,
   quite, radical, rambling, rank, rapid, rectified, regular,
   revealing, right, right-angle, right-angled, right-angular,
   round a point, see-through, sharp, sheerly, shift, shifting,
   shifting course, shifting path, sideling, simple, skew, slant,
   slew, slue, square, stark, steep, stickle, straight, straight-up,
   straight-up-and-down, straying, sway, sweep, sweeping, swerve,
   swerving, swing round, swing the stern, swinging, tack, thin,
   thorough, thoroughgoing, through-and-through, throw about, total,
   translucent, transparent, transpicuous, trend, turn, turn aside,
   turn back, turning, twist, ubiquitous, unadorned, unadulterated,
   unalloyed, unblended, unclouded, uncombined, uncompounded,
   unconditional, uncorrupted, undiluted, unenhanced, unfortified,
   universal, unleavened, unmingled, unmitigated, unmixed,
   unqualified, unrelievedly, unreserved, unrestricted,
   unsophisticated, untinged, up and down, up-and-down, utter,
   variation, vary, veer, veritable, vertical, volte-face, wandering,
   warp, wear, wear ship, wheel, whip, whirl, wholesale, wind, yaw,
   zigzag

Sheer >> S Words
Sheer, definition of term: Sheer
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