Search Result for "sheer": 
Wordnet 3.0

VERB (2)

1. turn sharply; change direction abruptly;
- Example: "The car cut to the left at the intersection"
- Example: "The motorbike veered to the right"
[syn: swerve, sheer, curve, trend, veer, slue, slew, cut]

2. cause to sheer;
- Example: "She sheered her car around the obstacle"


ADJECTIVE (4)

1. complete and without restriction or qualification; sometimes used informally as intensifiers;
- Example: "absolute freedom"
- Example: "an absolute dimwit"
- Example: "a downright lie"
- Example: "out-and-out mayhem"
- Example: "an out-and-out lie"
- Example: "a rank outsider"
- Example: "many right-down vices"
- Example: "got the job through sheer persistence"
- Example: "sheer stupidity"
[syn: absolute, downright, out-and-out(a), rank(a), right-down, sheer(a)]

2. not mixed with extraneous elements;
- Example: "plain water"
- Example: "sheer wine"
- Example: "not an unmixed blessing"
[syn: plain, sheer, unmingled, unmixed]

3. very steep; having a prominent and almost vertical front;
- Example: "a bluff headland"
- Example: "where the bold chalk cliffs of England rise"
- Example: "a sheer descent of rock"
[syn: bluff, bold, sheer]

4. so thin as to transmit light;
- Example: "a hat with a diaphanous veil"
- Example: "filmy wings of a moth"
- Example: "gauzy clouds of dandelion down"
- Example: "gossamer cobwebs"
- Example: "sheer silk stockings"
- Example: "transparent chiffon"
- Example: "vaporous silks"
[syn: diaphanous, filmy, gauzy, gauze-like, gossamer, see-through, sheer, transparent, vaporous, vapourous, cobwebby]


ADVERB (2)

1. straight up or down without a break;
[syn: sheer, perpendicularly]

2. directly;
- Example: "he fell sheer into the water"


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Sheer \Sheer\, adv. Clean; quite; at once. [Obs.] --Milton. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Sheer \Sheer\, v. t. [See Shear.] To shear. [Obs.] --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

sheer adv 1: straight up or down without a break [syn: sheer, perpendicularly] 2: directly; "he fell sheer into the water" adj 1: 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)] 2: not mixed with extraneous elements; "plain water"; "sheer wine"; "not an unmixed blessing" [syn: plain, sheer, unmingled, unmixed] 3: 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] 4: 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] v 1: 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] 2: cause to sheer; "She sheered her car around the obstacle"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

263 Moby Thesaurus words for "sheer": 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