SHEER • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Sheer

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Sheer

adjective

1.

Complete and without restriction or qualification; sometimes used informally as intensifiers. Synonyms: absolute, downright, out-and-out, rank, right-down. "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"

2.

Not mixed with extraneous elements. Synonyms: plain, unmingled, unmixed. "Sheer wine" , "Not an unmixed blessing"

3.

Very steep; having a prominent and almost vertical front. Synonyms: bluff, bold. "Where the bold chalk cliffs of England rise" , "A sheer descent of rock"

4.

So thin as to transmit light. Synonyms: cobwebby, diaphanous, filmy, gauze-like, gauzy, gossamer, see-through, transparent, vaporous, vapourous. "Filmy wings of a moth" , "Gauzy clouds of dandelion down" , "Gossamer cobwebs" , "Sheer silk stockings" , "Transparent chiffon" , "Vaporous silks"

verb

(past & past part. sheered; pres. part. sheering)

1.

Turn sharply; change direction abruptly. Synonyms: curve, cut, slew, slue, swerve, trend, veer. "The motorbike veered to the right"

2.

Cause to sheer.

adverb

1.

Straight up or down without a break. Synonym: perpendicularly.

2.

Directly.

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Etymology of 'Sheer'

WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Sheer" Quotes from Famous Books

... frog and in other animals. What the animal begins to do it persists in unless the act is positively harmful or conflicts with some beneficial activity. The only explanation of certain features of behavior is to be found in the conditions of their original occurrence. They persist by sheer force of conservatism. They have value only in the light of the circumstances under which they first appeared. Although this is merely a fact of habit formation, it suggests that many of the problems which have puzzled students of behavior ...

— The Dancing Mouse - A Study in Animal Behavior • Robert M. Yerkes

... age after age passes and teems only with the commonplace, that those who are the poets and teachers falter and lose faith: they utter no more of man the divine things the poets said of old. Perhaps the sheer respectability of the people they address deters them from making statements which in some respects might be considered libelous. But from whatever cause, from lack of heart or lack of faith, they have no real ...

— AE in the Irish Theosophist • George William Russell

... Rhode Island in the making of the Federal Union of the United States of America. The other colonies, once brought together into a single system, with power to adopt arrangements in their own interests in regard to customs duties and transportation rates, sheer economic pressure would have compelled the adhesion of Natal. In the constitution now put in force in South Africa the central point of importance is that it established what is practically a unitary and not a federal government. The underlying reason for this ...

— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 21 - The Recent Days (1910-1914) • Charles F. Horne, Editor

... to solidify them into a mass; on the top of this other trees had been placed, and the former process repeated. But the Tyrians had met the new tactics with new methods. They had employed divers to attach hooks to the boughs where they projected into the sea, and by sheer force had dragged the trees out from the superincumbent mass, bringing down in this way large portions of the structure.[14398] But with Alexander's coming, and the retirement of the Tyrian fleet, all this was altered. ...

— History of Phoenicia • George Rawlinson

... handles. One of dem old skillets was so big dat Mammy could cook 30 biscuits in it at one time. I allus did love biscuits, and I would go out in de yard and trade Aunt Tama's gingerbread to de other chilluns for deir sheer of biscuits. Den dey would be skeered to eat de gingerbread 'cause I told 'em I'd tell on 'em. Aunt Tama thought dey was sick and told Marse Frank de chilluns warn't eatin' nothin'. He axed 'em what was de matter and dey told him dey had done ...

— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves - Georgia Narratives, Part 4 • Works Projects Administration

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