SHEER • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Sheer

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Sheer

adjective

1.

Complete and without restriction or qualification; sometimes used informally as intensifiers. Synonyms: absolute, downright, out-and-out, rank, right-down. "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"

2.

Not mixed with extraneous elements. Synonyms: plain, unmingled, unmixed. "Sheer wine" , "Not an unmixed blessing"

3.

Very steep; having a prominent and almost vertical front. Synonyms: bluff, bold. "Where the bold chalk cliffs of England rise" , "A sheer descent of rock"

4.

So thin as to transmit light. Synonyms: cobwebby, diaphanous, filmy, gauze-like, gauzy, gossamer, see-through, transparent, vaporous, vapourous. "Filmy wings of a moth" , "Gauzy clouds of dandelion down" , "Gossamer cobwebs" , "Sheer silk stockings" , "Transparent chiffon" , "Vaporous silks"

verb

(past & past part. sheered; pres. part. sheering)

1.

Turn sharply; change direction abruptly. Synonyms: curve, cut, slew, slue, swerve, trend, veer. "The motorbike veered to the right"

2.

Cause to sheer.

adverb

1.

Straight up or down without a break. Synonym: perpendicularly.

2.

Directly.

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Etymology of 'Sheer'

WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Sheer" Quotes from Famous Books

... night of her coming she went straight to the Anemones, who stood in their green kerchiefs and didn't know how to hold out any longer. And one, two, three! there they stood in their newly-ironed white collars, and looked so fresh and so pretty that the Starlings sang their prettiest songs out of sheer joy in them. ...

— The Junior Classics Volume 8 - Animal and Nature Stories • Selected and arranged by William Patten

... said the Bishop in a low voice. 'And the wedding is to be soon. Her long solitude and sufferings justify haste. What you said was true. Sheer weariness and distraction have driven her to me. She was quite passive at last, and agreed to anything I proposed—such is the persuasive force of trained logical reasoning! A good and wise woman, she perceived what a true ...

— Two on a Tower • Thomas Hardy

... unskilled in war except with savages, and it is hardly probable I shall be able to outwit the trained guardsmen of Spain. Yet this I will say: I have determined to venture all at your desire. As I possess small skill or knowledge to aid me, I shall put audacity to the front, permitting sheer daring either to succeed or fail. But it would be wrong, Madame, for me to encourage you with false expectation. I deem it best to be perfectly frank, and I do not clearly see how this rescue is to be accomplished. I can form no definite plan of action; all I even hope for is, that the good God ...

— Prisoners of Chance - The Story of What Befell Geoffrey Benteen, Borderman, - through His Love for a Lady of France • Randall Parrish

... had fallen of late years from a position of moderate comfort into sheer struggle for subsistence. Jessica, armed with certificates of examinational prowess, got work as a visiting governess. At the same time, she nourished ambitions, discernible perhaps in the singular light of her deep-set eyes and a something of hysteric ...

— In the Year of Jubilee • George Gissing

... loveth Me not, keepeth not My word"; nor does such a one perform any "feeding of sheep," i. e., he is no pope at all, as they explain it. Thus it comes that the same passages which are cited in its favor are against the papacy; a just retribution for those who treat the holy Word of God in sheer madness, as though it were fool's talk, and who would make out of ...

— Works of Martin Luther - With Introductions and Notes (Volume I) • Martin Luther

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