Both Uses of
sheer
in
The Age of Innocence
- Rich and idle and ornamental societies must produce many more such situations; and there might even be one in which a woman naturally sensitive and aloof would yet, from the force of circumstances, from sheer defencelessness and loneliness, be drawn into a tie inexcusable by conventional standards.†
Chpt 11
- Once more she had managed, by her sheer simplicity, to make him feel stupidly conventional just when he thought he was flinging convention to the winds.†
Chpt 29 *
Definition:
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(sheer as in: a sheer blouse) typically of fabric: very thin and delicate -- often transparent