GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found 5 definitions

1.       
   Sheer (?), a. [OE. shere, skere, pure, bright, Icel. skrr; akin to skīrr, AS. scīr, OS. skīri, MHG. schīr, G. schier, Dan. skr, Sw. skär, Goth. skeirs clear, and E. shine. √157. See Shine, v. i.]
   1. Bright; clear; pure; unmixed. “Sheer ale.”  Shak.
   
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   Thou sheer, immaculate, and silver fountain. Shak.
   
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   2. Very thin or transparent; -- applied to fabrics; as, “sheer muslin”.
   
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   3. Being only what it seems to be; obvious; simple; mere; downright; as, “sheer folly; sheer nonsense”. “A sheer impossibility.”  De Quincey.
   
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   It is not a sheer advantage to have several strings to one's bow. M. Arnold.
   
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   4. Stright up and down; vertical; prpendicular.
   
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   A sheer precipice of a thousand feet. J. D. Hooker.
   
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   It was at least
   
   Nine roods of sheer ascent. Wordsworth.
   
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2.       
   Sheer, adv. Clean; quite; at once. [Obs.]  Milton.
   
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3.       
   Sheer, v. t. [See Shear.] To shear. [Obs.]  Dryden.
   
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4.       
   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”.
   
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   To sheer off, to turn or move aside to a distance; to move away. -- To sheer up, to approach obliquely.
   
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5.       
   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.
   
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   2. A turn or change in a course.
   
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   Give the canoe a sheer and get nearer to the shore. Cooper.
   
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   3. pl. Shears See Shear.
   
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   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.
   
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