sheer
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
[edit] English
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Etymology 1
From Old Norse skírr (“pure, bright, clear”)[1], cognate with Danish skær, German schier (“sheer”), Dutch schier (“almost”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌴𐌹𐍂𐍃 (skeirs, “clear, lucid”).
[edit] Adjective
sheer (comparative sheerer or more sheer, superlative sheerest or most sheer)
- (textiles) Very thin or transparent.
- Her light, sheer dress caught everyone’s attention.
- Pure; unmixed; being only what it seems to be.
- I think it is sheer genius to invent such a thing.
- This poem is sheer nonsense.
- Very steep; almost vertical or perpendicular.
- It was a sheer drop of 180 feet.
- Used to emphasize the amount or degree of something.
- Through technological wizardry and sheer audacity, Google has shown how we can transform the intellectual riches of our libraries...
[edit] Synonyms
- (very thin or transparent): diaphanous, see-through, thin
- (pure, unmixed): downright, mere, pure, undiluted, unmitigated
- (straight up and down): perpendicular, steep, vertical
[edit] Translations
very thin or transparent
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pure; unmixed
straight up and down; vertical; perpendicular
[edit] Adverb
sheer (comparative more sheer, superlative most sheer)
[edit] Translations
clean
quite
at once
[edit] Etymology 2
[edit] Noun
sheer (plural sheers)
- (nautical) The curve of the main deck or gunwale from bow to stern.
- (nautical) An abrupt swerve from the course of a ship.
[edit] Translations
nautical: curve of main deck
nautical: abrupt swerve
[edit] Verb
sheer (third-person singular simple present sheers, present participle sheering, simple past and past participle sheered)
[edit] Translations
nautical: shear
[edit] References
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
