'Sheer' definitions:
Definition of 'sheer'
From: WordNet
adverb
Straight up or down without a break [syn: sheer, perpendicularly]
adverb
Directly; "he fell sheer into the water"
adjective
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-out(a), rank(a), right-down, sheer(a)]
adjective
Not mixed with extraneous elements; "plain water"; "sheer wine"; "not an unmixed blessing" [syn: plain, sheer, unmingled, unmixed]
adjective
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, sheer]
adjective
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, gauze-like, gossamer, see-through, sheer, transparent, vaporous, vapourous, cobwebby]
verb
Turn sharply; change direction abruptly; "The car cut to the left at the intersection"; "The motorbike veered to the right" [syn: swerve, sheer, curve, trend, veer, slue, slew, cut]
verb
Cause to sheer; "She sheered her car around the obstacle"
Definition of 'Sheer'
From: GCIDE
- Sheer \Sheer\, a. [OE. shere, skere, pure, bright, Icel. sk?rr; akin to sk[imac]rr, AS. sc[imac]r, OS. sk[imac]ri, MHG. sch[imac]r, G. schier, Dan. sk?r, Sw. sk[aum]r, Goth. skeirs clear, and E. shine. [root]157. 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]
Definition of 'Sheer'
From: GCIDE
- Sheer \Sheer\, adv. Clean; quite; at once. [Obs.] --Milton. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Sheer'
From: GCIDE
- Sheer \Sheer\, v. t. [See Shear.] To shear. [Obs.] --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Sheer'
From: GCIDE
- 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]
Definition of 'Sheer'
From: GCIDE
- 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]
Synonyms of 'sheer'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- 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