sheer

Definitions

1. adjective

   Very thin or transparent.

   Examples

   • Her light, sheer dress caught everyone’s attention.
   • “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.”
   ≈diaphanous≈see-through≈thin
2. adjective

   Pure in composition; unmixed; unadulterated.

   Examples

   • If she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale, score me up for the lying’st knave in Christendom.
   • Thou sheer, immaculate and silver fountain, / From when this stream through muddy passages / Hath held his current and defiled himself!
   ≈pure≈undiluted
3. adjective

   Downright; complete; pure.

   Examples

   • I think it is sheer genius to invent such a thing.
   • This poem is sheer nonsense.
   ≈downright≈pure≈unmitigated≈utter≈abject +42 more
4. adjective

   Used to emphasize the amount or degree of something.

   Examples

   • The army's sheer size made it impossible to resist.
   • Dr. Frank Hoffman, a gynecologist and founder of the program, says he was appalled by the sheer numbers of cases of early-stage breast cancer that were being missed, not just in Germany but around the world.
5. adjective

   Very steep; almost vertical or perpendicular.

   Example

   • It was a sheer drop of 180 feet.
   ≈perpendicular≈steep≈vertical
6. adverb

   Clean; completely; at once.

   Examples

   • Hector the ashen lance of Ajax smote / With his broad faulchion, at the nether end, / And lopp’d it sheer.
   • Swift into the dark stream at once he fell, / As the red star at once falls swift and sheer / From sky to sea
7. noun

   A sheer curtain or fabric.

   Examples

   • Use sheers to maximize natural light.
   • Lightweight, tightly woven silkies, sheers, lingerie
8. noun

   The curve of the main deck or gunwale from bow to stern.

9. noun

   An abrupt swerve from the course of a ship.

10. verb

    To swerve from a course.

    Example

    • I sheered her well inshore-the water being deepest near the bank, as the sounding-pole informed me.