[sheer] 
adjective, -er, -est, adverb, noun | 1. | transparently thin; diaphanous, as some fabrics: sheer stockings. |
| 2. | unmixed with anything else: We drilled a hundred feet through sheer rock. |
| 3. | unqualified; utter: sheer nonsense. |
| 4. | extending down or up very steeply; almost completely vertical: a sheer descent of rock. |
| 5. | British Obsolete. bright; shining. |
| 6. | clear; completely; quite: ran sheer into the thick of battle. |
| 7. | perpendicularly; vertically; down or up very steeply. |
| 8. | a thin, diaphanous material, as chiffon or voile. |
[sheer] | 1. | to deviate from a course, as a ship; swerve. |
| 2. | to cause to sheer. |
| 3. | Shipbuilding. to give sheer to (a hull). |
| 4. | a deviation or divergence, as of a ship from its course; swerve. |
| 5. | Shipbuilding. the fore-and-aft upward curve of the hull of a vessel at the main deck or bulwarks. |
| 6. | Nautical. the position in which a ship at anchor is placed to keep it clear of the anchor. |
| sheer 1 (shîr) intr. & tr.v. sheered, sheer·ing, sheers To swerve or cause to swerve from a course. n.
[Probably partly from Low German scheren, to move to and fro (said of boats), and partly from Dutch scheren, to withdraw; see sker-1 in Indo-European roots.] |
| sheer 2 (shîr) adj. sheer·er, sheer·est
[Obsolete shere, thin, clear, partly from Middle English shir, bright, clear (from Old English scīr) and partly from Middle English skir, bright, clean (from Old Norse skærr).] sheer'ly adv., sheer'ness n. |
