All 14 Uses of
sheer
in
The Return of the King
- Up it rose, even to the level of the topmost circle, and there was crowned by a battlement; so that those in the Citadel might, like mariners in a mountainous ship, look from its peak sheer down upon the Gate seven hundred feet below.†
Chpt 5.1
- And so they came at last deep into the glen; and there stood a sheer wall of rock, and in the wall the Dark Door gaped before them like the mouth of night.†
Chpt 5.2
- ...and beyond, going steeply down, was a road between sheer cliffs, knife-edged against the sky far above.
Chpt 5.2 (definition 1) *sheer = so steep as to be almost vertical
- The Morthond Vale made a great bay that beat up against the sheer southern faces of the mountains.†
Chpt 5.2
- Upwards it wound, coiling like a snake, boring its way across the sheer slope of rock.†
Chpt 5.3
- Its eastern face stood up in three great tiers from a shelf in the mountain-wall far below; its back was to a great cliff behind, from which it jutted out in pointed bastions, one above the other, diminishing as they rose, with sheer sides of cunning masonry that looked north-east and south-east.†
Chpt 6.1
- There's a sheer drop over the wall.†
Chpt 6.2 *
- The eastern faces of the Ephel Duath were sheer, falling in cliff and precipice to the black trough that lay between them and the inner ridge.†
Chpt 6.2
- It was not a broad road, and it had no wall or parapet along the edge and as it ran on the sheer drop from its brink became deeper and deeper.†
Chpt 6.2
- He looked wildly up at the frowning wall, where the road-builders of old had cut the rock sheer for many fathoms above their heads.†
Chpt 6.2
- The Mountain crept up ever nearer, until, if they lifted their heavy heads, it filled all their sight, looming vast before them: a huge mass of ash and slag and burned stone, out of which a sheer-sided cone was raised into the clouds.†
Chpt 6.3
- They had reached the Mountain's foot on its northern side, and a little to the westward; there its long grey slopes, though broken, were not sheer.†
Chpt 6.3
- A brief vision he had of swirling cloud, and in the midst of it towers and battlements, tall as hills, founded upon a mighty mountain-throne above immeasurable pits; great courts and dungeons, eyeless prisons sheer as cliffs, and gaping gates of steel and adamant: and then all passed.†
Chpt 6.3
- And when Sam heard that he laughed aloud for sheer delight,
Chpt 6.4 (definition 2) *sheer = complete -- without restriction
Definitions:
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(1) (sheer as in: a sheer cliff) so steep it is almost vertical
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(2) (sheer as in: sheer fun) complete or pure -- without restriction, qualification, or other elements (used for emphasis)
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(sheer as in: a sheer blouse) typically of fabric: very thin and delicate -- often transparent