Sekirov Dictionary

sheer

UK /ʃɪə̯/US /ʃɪɚ/

adjective 5
noun 3
adverb 1
verb 1
forms 7

adjective5

•
Downright; complete; pure.
- I think it is sheer genius to invent such a thing.
- This poem is sheer nonsense.
•
Used to emphasize the amount or degree of something.
- The army's sheer size made it impossible to resist.
•
Very steep; almost vertical or perpendicular.
- It was a sheer drop of 180 feet.
•
Very thin or transparent.
- Her light, sheer dress caught everyone’s attention.
•
(no longer used) Pure in composition; unmixed; unadulterated.
- If she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale, score me up for the lying’st knave in Christendom. — 1590

noun3

•
A sheer curtain or fabric.
- Use sheers to maximize natural light.
The curve of the main deck or gunwale from bow to stern.
An abrupt swerve from the course of a ship.

adverb1

•
(no longer used) Clean; completely; at once.
- Hector the ashen lance of Ajax smote / With his broad faulchion, at the nether end, / And lopp’d it sheer. — 1791

verb1

•
To swerve from a course.
- I sheered her well inshore—the water being deepest near the bank, as the sounding–pole informed me. — 1899

forms

sheered · sheering · sheers · more sheer · sheerer · most sheer · sheerest

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