Sheer (?), a. [OE. shere, skere, pure, bright, Icel. skrr; akin to skirr, AS. scir, OS. skiri, MHG. schir, G. schier, Dan. skr, Sw. skar, Goth. skeirs clear, and E. shine. &root;157. See Shine, v. i.]
1.
Bright; clear; pure; unmixed.
"
Sheer ale."
Shak.
Thou sheer, immaculate, and silver fountain.
Shak.
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.
"A
sheer impossibility."
De Quincey.
It is not a sheer advantage to have several strings to one's bow.
M. Arnold.
4.
Stright up and down; vertical; perpendicular.
A sheer precipice of a thousand feet.
J. D. Hooker.
It was at least
Nine roods of sheer ascent.
Wordsworth.
© Webster 1913.
Sheer, adv.
Clean; quite; at once.
[Obs.]
Milton.
© Webster 1913.
Sheer, v. t. [See Shear.]
To shear.
[Obs.]
Dryden.
© Webster 1913.
Sheer, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Sheered (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Sheering.] [D. sheren to shear, cut, withdraw, warp. See Shear.]
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.
To sheer off, to turn or move aside to a distance; to move away. -- To sheer up, to approach obliquely.
© Webster 1913.
Sheer, n.
1. Naut. (a)
The longitudinal upward curvature of the deck, gunwale, and lines of a vessel, as when viewed from the side.
(b)
The position of a vessel riding at single anchor and swinging clear of it.
2.
A turn or change in a course.
Give the canoe a sheer and get nearer to the shore.
Cooper.
3. pl.
Shears See Shear.
Sheer batten Shipbuilding, 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, ∨ Sheer draught Shipbuilding, a projection of the lines of a vessel on a vertical longitudinal plane passing through the middle line of the vessel.
-- Sheer pole Naut., an iron rod lashed to the shrouds just above the dead-eyes and parallel to the ratlines.
-- Sheer strake Shipbuilding, the strake under the gunwale on the top side. Totten.
-- To break sheer Naut., to deviate from sheer, and risk fouling the anchor.
© Webster 1913.