Sheer

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /ˈʃɪə/
• US IPA: /ʃɪɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
• Homophones: shear

From Middle English shere, scheere, schere, skere, from Old English *scǣre; merged with Middle English shire, schire, schyre, shir, from Old English scīr ("clear, bright; brilliant, gleaming, shining, splendid, resplendent; pure") and Old Norse skírr ("pure, bright, clear")

Merriam-Webster online Dictionary

, both from Proto-Germanic *skīriz ("pure, sheer") and *skairiz, from Proto-Indo-European *sḱēy- ("luster, gloss, shadow"). Cognate with Danish skær, German schier ("sheer"), Dutch schier ("almost"), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌴𐌹𐍂𐍃 (skeirs, "clear, lucid"). Outside Germanic, cognate to Albanian hirrë ("whey, serum").

Full definition of sheer

Adjective

1. (textiles) Very thin or transparent.
• 1954, Alexander Alderson, The Subtle Minotaur Chapter 17, “She sheathed her legs in the sheerest of the nylons that her father had brought back from the Continent, and slipped her feet into the toeless, high-heeled shoes of black suède.”
2. Her light, sheer dress caught everyone’s attention.
3. (obsolete) Pure; unmixed.
• Shakespearesheer ale
• ShakespeareThou sheer, immaculate, and silver fountain.
4. Being only what it seems to be; mere.
• 2012, July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off trackCycling's complex etiquette contains an unwritten rule that riders in contention for a race win should not be penalised for sheer misfortune.
5. I think it is sheer genius to invent such a thing.
   This poem is sheer nonsense.
6. Very steep; almost vertical or perpendicular.
   It was a sheer drop of 180 feet.
7. Used to emphasize the amount or degree of something.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 2, That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired. And if the arts of humbleness failed him, he overcame you by sheer impudence.
• 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/nyregion/new-jersey-continues-to-cope-with-hurricane-sandy.html?hp," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012)Perhaps as startling as the sheer toll was the devastation to some of the state’s well-known locales. Boardwalks along the beach in Seaside Heights, Belmar and other towns on the Jersey Shore were blown away. Amusement parks, arcades and restaurants all but vanished. Bridges to barrier islands buckled, preventing residents from even inspecting the damage to their property.
8. Through technological wizardry and sheer audacity, Google has shown how we can transform the intellectual riches of our libraries....

Synonyms

• (very thin or transparent) diaphanous, see-through, thin
• (pure, unmixed) downright, mere, pure, undiluted, unmitigated
• (straight up and down) perpendicular, steep, vertical

Adverb

1. (archaic) clean; quite; at once.

Unknown from Dutch scheren ("to move aside, skim"); see also shear.

Noun

1. (nautical) The curve of the main deck or gunwale from bow to stern.
2. (nautical) An abrupt swerve from the course of a ship.

Verb

1. (chiefly nautical) To swerve from a course.A horse sheers at a bicycle.
• 1899, Joseph Conrad, ,I sheered her well inshore—the water being deepest near the bank, as the sounding–pole informed me.
2. (obsolete) To shear.

Anagrams

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