sheer : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: sheer	by the DICT Development Group
6 results for sheer
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
sheer adv straight up or down without a break [syn: sheer, perpendicularly] directly; "he fell sheer into the water" adj 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" Synonym(s): absolute, downright, out-and-out(a), rank(a), right-down, sheer(a) not mixed with extraneous elements; "plain water"; "sheer wine"; "not an unmixed blessing" Synonym(s): plain, sheer, unmingled, unmixed 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" Synonym(s): bluff, bold, sheer 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" Synonym(s): diaphanous, filmy, gauzy, gauze-like, gossamer, see-through, sheer, transparent, vaporous, vapourous, cobwebby v turn sharply; change direction abruptly; "The car cut to the left at the intersection"; "The motorbike veered to the right" Synonym(s): swerve, sheer, curve, trend, veer, slue, slew, cut cause to sheer; "She sheered her car around the obstacle"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Sheer \Sheer\, adv. Clean; quite; at once. [Obs.] --Milton.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Sheer \Sheer\, v. t. [See {Shear}.] To shear. [Obs.] --Dryden.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
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. {To sheer off}, to turn or move aside to a distance; to move away. {To sheer up}, to approach obliquely.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Sheer \Sheer\, a. [OE. shere, skere, pure, bright, Icel. sk[?]rr; akin to sk[c6]rr, AS. sc[c6]r, OS. sk[c6]ri, MHG. sch[c6]r, G. schier, Dan. sk[?]r, Sw. sk[84]r, Goth. skeirs clear, and E. shine. [root]157. See {Shine}, v. i.] 1. Bright; clear; pure; unmixed. [bd]Sheer ale.[b8] --Shak. Thou sheer, immaculate, and silver fountain. --Shak. 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. [bd]A sheer impossibility.[b8] --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.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
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. 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.