Sheer /(?)/

Sheer

a.
  1. Bright; clear; pure; unmixed.
    Thou sheer, immaculate, and silver fountain.
  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.
    It is not a sheer advantage to have several strings to one's bow.
  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.

Sheer

adv.
  1. Clean; quite; at once. [Obs.]

Sheer

v. t.
  1. To shear. [Obs.]

Sheer

v. i.

imp. & p. p. Sheered; p. pr. & vb. n. Sheering

  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.

Sheer

n.
  1. The longitudinal upward curvature of the deck, gunwale, and lines of a vessel, as when viewed from the side. (Naut.)
  2. A turn or change in a course.
    Give the canoe a sheer and get nearer to the shore.
  3. Shears 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.