SHEER • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Sheer

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/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.)

See images of 'Sheer'

Etymology of 'Sheer'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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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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