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Webster 1913 Edition

Sheer

Sheer

,
Adj.
[OE.
shere
,
skere
, pure, bright, Icel.
sk[GREEK]rr
; akin to
skīrr
, AS.
scīr
, OS.
skīri
, MHG.
schīr
, G.
schier
, Dan.
sk[GREEK]r
, Sw.
skär
, Goth.
skeirs
clear, and E.
shine
. √157. See
Shine
,
Verb.
I.
]
1.
Bright; clear; pure; unmixed.
“Sheer ale.”
Shak.
Thou
sheer
, immaculate, and silver fountain.
Shakespeare
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.”
De Quincey.
It is not a
sheer
advantage to have several strings to one’s bow.
M. Arnold.
4.
Stright up and down; vertical; prpendicular.
A
sheer
precipice of a thousand feet.
J. D. Hooker.
It was at least
Nine roods of
sheer
ascent.
Wordsworth.

Sheer

,
adv.
Clean; quite; at once.
[Obs.]
Milton.

Sheer

,
Verb.
T.
[See
Shear
.]
To shear.
[Obs.]
Dryden.

Sheer

,
Verb.
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
.
To sheer off
,
to turn or move aside to a distance; to move away.
–
To sheer up
,
to approach obliquely.

Sheer

,
Noun.
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.
Cooper.
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.
Totten.
–
To break sheer
(Naut.)
,
to deviate from sheer, and risk fouling the anchor.

Webster 1828 Edition

Sheer

SHEER

,
Adj.
1. Pure; clear; separate from anything foreign; unmingled; as sheer ale. But this application is unusual. We saysheer argument, sheer wit, sheer falsehook, &c.
2. Clear; thin; as sheer muslin.

SHEER

,
adv.
Clean; quite; at once. Obs.

SHEER

,
Verb.
T.
To sheer. [Not in use.]

SHEER

,
Verb.
I.
[See Shear, the sense of which is to separate.]
1. In seamen's language, to decline or deviate from the line of the proper course, as a ship when not steered with steadiness.
2. To slip or move aside.

Definition 2024

sheer

sheer

See also: sheer-

English

Adjective

sheer ‎(comparative sheerer or more sheer, superlative sheerest or most sheer)

  1. (textiles) Very thin or transparent.
    • 1954, Alexander Alderson, chapter 17, in The Subtle Minotaur:
      “She sheathed her legs in the sheerest of the nylons that her father had brought back from the Continent, and slipped her feet into the toeless, high-heeled shoes of black suède.”
    Her light, sheer dress caught everyone’s attention.‎
  2. (obsolete) Pure in composition; unmixed; unadulterated.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare
      sheer ale
    • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare
      Thou sheer, immaculate, and silver fountain.
  3. (by extension) Downright; complete; pure.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired. And if the arts of humbleness failed him, he overcame you by sheer impudence.
    • 2012, July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track
      Cycling's complex etiquette contains an unwritten rule that riders in contention for a race win should not be penalised for sheer misfortune.
    I think it is sheer genius to invent such a thing.‎
    This poem is sheer nonsense.‎
    Through technological wizardry and sheer audacity, Google has shown how we can transform the intellectual riches of our libraries […] .‎
  4. Used to emphasize the amount or degree of something.
    • 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):
      Perhaps as startling as the sheer toll was the devastation to some of the state’s well-known locales. Boardwalks along the beach in Seaside Heights, Belmar and other towns on the Jersey Shore were blown away. Amusement parks, arcades and restaurants all but vanished. Bridges to barrier islands buckled, preventing residents from even inspecting the damage to their property.
    The army's sheer size made it impossible to resist.‎
  5. Very steep; almost vertical or perpendicular.
    It was a sheer drop of 180 feet.‎


Synonyms
Translations

Adverb

sheer ‎(comparative more sheer, superlative most sheer)

  1. (archaic) Clean; quite; at once.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

(Can we add an example for this sense?)

Translations

Etymology 2

Perhaps from Dutch scheren ‎(“to move aside, skim”); see also shear.

Noun

sheer ‎(plural sheers)

  1. (nautical) The curve of the main deck or gunwale from bow to stern.
  2. (nautical) An abrupt swerve from the course of a ship.
Translations

Verb

sheer ‎(third-person singular simple present sheers, present participle sheering, simple past and past participle sheered)

  1. (chiefly nautical) To swerve from a course.
    A horse sheers at a bicycle.
  2. (obsolete) To shear.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)
Translations

References

  1. ↑ Merriam-Webster online Dictionary

Anagrams

Etymology

From Middle English shere, scheere, schere, skere, from Old English *scǣre; merged with Middle English shire, schire, schyre, shir, from Old English scīr ‎(“clear, bright; brilliant, gleaming, shining, splendid, resplendent; pure”) and Old Norse skírr ‎(“pure, bright, clear”)[1], both from Proto-Germanic *skīriz ‎(“pure, sheer”) and *skairiz, from Proto-Indo-European *sḱēy- ‎(“luster, gloss, shadow”). Cognate with Danish skær, German schier ‎(“sheer”), Dutch schier ‎(“almost”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌴𐌹𐍂𐍃 ‎(skeirs, “clear, lucid”). Outside Germanic, cognate to Albanian hirrë ‎(“whey, serum”).

Pronunciation

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