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Entry 10 senses · 5 variants Webster, 1913

Sheer

/shĭr/ · IPA /ʃɪɚ/
01 a. Bright; clear; pure; unmixed.
  1. 1.
    Bright; clear; pure; unmixed.
    “Thou sheer, immaculate, and silver fountain.” — Shak.
  2. 2.
    Very thin or transparent; -- applied to fabrics; as, sheer muslin.
  3. 3.
    Being only what it seems to be; obvious; simple; mere; downright; as, sheer folly; sheer nonsense.
    “It is not a sheer advantage to have several strings to one's bow.” — M. Arnold.
  4. 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.
02 adv. Clean; quite; at once.
  1. 1.
    Clean; quite; at once.[Obs.]
03 v. t. To shear.
  1. 1.
    To shear.[Obs.]
04 v. i. 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 …
imp. & p. p. Sheered; p. pr. & vb. n. Sheering
  1. 1.
    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.
Phrases & compounds
To sheer off — to turn or move aside to a distance; to move away.
To sheer up — to approach obliquely.
05 n. The longitudinal upward curvature of the deck, gunwale, and lines of a vessel, as when viewed from the side.
  1. 1.
    The longitudinal upward curvature of the deck, gunwale, and lines of a vessel, as when viewed from the side.(Naut.)
  2. 2.
    A turn or change in a course.
    “Give the canoe a sheer and get nearer to the shore.” — Cooper.
  3. 3.
    Shears See Shear. See: Shear
Phrases & compounds
Sheer batten — 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 — a projection of the lines of a vessel on a vertical longitudinal plane passing through the middle line of the vessel.
Sheer pole — an iron rod lashed to the shrouds just above the dead-eyes and parallel to the ratlines.
Sheer strake — the strake under the gunwale on the top side.
To break sheer — to deviate from sheer, and risk fouling the anchor.