Sample Sentences for
sheer
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

sheer as in:  a sheer blouse

•
In the kitchen, I want sheer curtains that I can see through.
sheer = so thin and delicate as to be transparent
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • •
    She likes sheer silk stockings.
  • •
    At work, the blouse is too sheer to wear without a coat.
    sheer = thin and delicate
  • •
    Eerie nine-hundred-year-old petroglyphs and pictographs decorate its sheer walls.  (source)
▲ show less (of above)
Show 10 more with 4 word variations
  • •
    The sheer fabric softly glows.  (source)
    sheer = thin and delicate
  • •
    Kate's hands were always busy, mostly at drawn work on the sheerest of lawn handkerchiefs.  (source)
    sheerest = thinnest or most delicate
  • •
    She'd zippered up her windbreaker—perhaps, Puller thought, to cover the sheerness of the T-shirt underneath in the presence of her deputies.†  (source)
    standard suffix: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.
  • •
    I sit on the window seat, looking out through the semisheer of the curtains.†  (source)
  • •
    "The skirt will be how long?" Mother said. "And sheer?"  (source)
    sheer = thin and delicate
  • •
    BOTARD: [following the procession, raising his hands to heaven] It's the sheerest madness!†  (source)
  • •
    There was a sheerness, the smoothest rigor to her cheek, as if it were the keen wall of a canyon.†  (source)
  • •
    They were the plainest men's pajamas, of a semisheer white cotton-poly.†  (source)
  • •
    It's made of super-sheer plastic, and as I wrap it around my body, securing it at the waist with a knot, I'm fully aware that you can still see pretty much everything including the outline of my underwear—through its fabric.  (source)
    sheer = thin and transparent
  • •
    Streicher's theories are the sheerest rot.†  (source)
▲ show less (of above)

sheer as in:  sheer fun

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • •
    It was a demonstration of sheer stupidity.
    sheer = complete
  • •
    I looked up to see Miss Caroline standing in the middle of the room, sheer horror flooding her face.  (source)
  • •
    The last part of the will was sheer lunacy.  (source)
▲ show less (of above)
Show 10 more with 2 word variations
  • •
    Everyone was rather amazed at the sheer size of the gift.  (source)
    sheer = total (used for emphasis)
  • •
    The sheerest smile brushed his lips, and heat rushed up my body.  (source)
    sheerest = purest
  • •
    The work at Siemens, however, was sheer misery.  (source)
    sheer = complete
  • •
    As tough as she was, she had probably never before screamed in her life, yet this was a cry of sheerest child-like terror.  (source)
    sheerest = most complete or purest
  • •
    And it was sheer bad luck that he sat down on the pile of thistles.  (source)
    sheer = pure or complete
  • •
    Of course all that was the sheerest hypocrisy!  (source)
    sheerest = purest
  • •
    And then, of course, there was the sheer size of the library; tens of thousands of books; thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows.  (source)
    sheer = (used for emphasis)
  • •
    No, it was not anger, it was loathing; it was hatred, sheer and unadulterated, and as she became lost in hatred she also began to be lost in IT.  (source)
    sheer = pure
  • •
    I didn't cut this fella off for the sheer unadulterated pleasure of it, although it is an excellent weight-loss strategy.  (source)
    sheer = pure (without other reasons)
  • •
    When their fingernails had scratched at the wood and in some cases were nailed into it by the sheer force of desperation, their spirits came toward me, into my arms, and we climbed out of those shower facilities, onto the roof and up, into eternity's certain breadth.  (source)
    sheer = (used for emphasis)
▲ show less (of above)

sheer as in:  a sheer cliff

•
Be careful on that road. There is a sheer drop-off on the right.
sheer = so steep it is almost vertical
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • •
    A sheer cliff drops from the lighthouse to the sea.
  • •
    On either side was a sheer wall of dark reddish stone, glistening with dampness.  (source)
  • •
    Grant strained against the oar and, looking over the edge, saw the sheer drop of fifty feet down to the surging pool below.  (source)
    sheer = very steep or vertical
▲ show less (of above)
Show 10 more
  • •
    Rising four hundred feet over the nighttime sprawl of modern Athens, the sheer cliffs were topped with a crown of limestone walls.  (source)
    sheer = so steep they are almost vertical
  • •
    A fountain of books sprang down upon Montag as he climbed shuddering up the sheer stairwell.  (source)
    sheer = so steep it is almost vertical
  • •
    The hem of her dress drips; her shoes squelch out water; to both sides rise sheer walls.  (source)
  • •
    Helene cranes her neck back and stares up the sheer cliff face.  (source)
  • •
    But the idea is there, looming up solid and unavoidable, a sheer rock face: I could have stopped it.  (source)
  • •
    So they proceeded after that as if they were climbing a dangerous mountain, until the rocks became an uncompromising cliff, overhung with impossible jungle and falling sheer into the sea.  (source)
    sheer = so steeply as to be almost vertical
  • •
    It was a sheer drop of ten or twenty metres, with boulders at the bottom.  (source)
    sheer = so steep it is almost vertical
  • •
    ...the cliffs fell sheer to the sea below,  (source)
    sheer = steeply
  • •
    At their feet lay a straggle of low buildings, a criss-cross of walls; and on three sides the precipices fell sheer into the plain.  (source)
    sheer = so steep it is almost vertical
  • •
    We saw it in all its grandeur, perched a thousand feet on the summit of a sheer precipice, and with seemingly a great gap between it and the steep of the adjacent mountain on any side.  (source)
▲ show less (of above)

sheer as in:  sheer to the left

•
The boat sheered to port to avoid a collision.
sheered = turned sharply
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • •
    The boat sheered toward the whale and silenced the engines drifting forward until it was about 100 yards away.
  • •
    ...and when one tried to get the thing straight the argument sheered off, bringing up fresh, unpleasant matter.  (source)
    sheered = abruptly changed direction
  • •
    "How shall I know Sea Cow when I meet him?" said Kotick, sheering off.  (source)
    sheering = changing direction quickly
▲ show less (of above)
Show 10 more with 4 word variations
  • •
    Sometimes he sheered off the subject, or turned the conversation by pretending not to understand, but generally he answered all I asked most frankly.  (source)
    sheered = swerved (changed to a different topic)
  • •
    The car wobbled in the sound booms of highballing trucks, drivers perched in tall cabs with food, drink, dope and pornography, and the rigs seemed to draw the little car down the pike in their sheering wind.  (source)
    sheering = causing abrupt change of direction of the
  • •
    She was certain her eyes wheeled like a panicked horse's when Trina tested her cropping sheers.†  (source)
  • •
    Bree only snorted in answer but he did sheer away to his right.  (source)
    sheer = change direction
  • •
    At last the frantic sufferer sheered from its course, and sprang into its master's lap; he flung it out of the window, and the voice of distress quickly thinned away and died in the distance.†  (source)
  • •
    But the horse slowed, sheering into the curb.†  (source)
  • •
    He pointed up at our house, where the sheers in my window were pulled off to one side.†  (source)
  • •
    He got so frightened about his plaguy soul, that he shrinked and sheered away from whales, for fear of after-claps, in case he got stove and went to Davy Jones.†  (source)
  • •
    The brig was sheering swiftly and giddily through a long, cresting swell.†  (source)
  • •
    Then the downstream one vanishes, dragging the other with him; the wagon sheers crosswise, poised on the crest of the ford as the log strikes it, tilting it up and on.†  (source)
▲ show less (of above)

meaning too rare to warrant focus

Show 3 with this contextual meaning
  • •
    Sheer white silk with rainbow trimming was slipped over her arms.  (source)
    Sheer = alternate spelling of shears (scissors)
  • •
    The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers.  (source)
    sheered = alternate spelling of shear (to cut)
  • •
    A few rivets sheered off, each with a piercing screeeeek.  (source)
    sheered = alternate spelling of sheared (cut)
▲ show less (of above)
Show 3 more with 2 word variations
  • •
    Her gown was as thin as Mama's sheers in the dining room.  (source)
    sheers = window coverings that are so thin one can look out through them
  • •
    …they had to contend with the impact that any high-velocity bullet of a certain lethal engineering will make on any human head, and the sheering of tissue and braincase was a terrible revelation.  (source)
    sheering = tearing
  • •
    THE WOMAN: You had two boxes of size nine sheers for me, and I want them!  (source)
    sheers = scissors
▲ show less (of above)