4 meanings
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1 —as in:
a sheer blouse
Definition
typically of fabric: very thin and delicate — often transparent- In the kitchen, I want sheer curtains that I can see through.
sheer = so thin and delicate as to be transparent
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- She likes sheer silk stockings.
- At work, the blouse is too sheer to wear without a coat.
- A moment later I could see her peering at me from behind the sheer white curtain of the door window, her eyes terrified.Daniel Keyes -- Flowers for Algernon — Novel
- I wore jeans, a large gray T-shirt, and steel-toed boots; the other girls wore black leotards and sheer, shimmering skirts, white tights and tiny ballet shoes the color of taffy.Tara Westover -- Educated
- He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray.F. Scott Fitzgerald -- The Great Gatsby
- Whatever bravery or skill I had ever shown were gifts of God—sheer loans from Him of the talent needed to do a job.Corrie ten Boom -- The Hiding Place
- Beside him stands a Tribal girl clad in sheer, rose-colored robes, their hems embroidered with tiny round mirrors.Sabaa Tahir -- An Ember in the Ashes
- I grab at the sheer blue curtain panels and yank them until the rod snaps and the curtains fall around me.Colleen Hoover -- Hopeless
- 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.Lauren Oliver -- Delirium
sheer = so thin and delicate as to be transparent
sheer = thin and delicate
sheer = thin and transparent
sheer = thin and delicate
sheer = thin
sheer = typically of fabric: very thin and delicate — often transparent
sheer = thin and transparent
2 —as in:
sheer fun
Definition
complete or pure — without restriction, qualification, or other elements (used for emphasis)- She got the job through sheer persistence.
sheer = pure (completely by)
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- It was a demonstration of sheer stupidity.
- 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.Madeleine L'Engle -- A Wrinkle in Time
- The last part of the will was sheer lunacy.Ellen Raskin -- The Westing Game
- For the sake of the labourers; it would be sheer cruelty to afflict them with excessive leisure.Aldous Huxley -- Brave New World
- And anyway it's a sheer impossibility that Armstrong can be in the house.Agatha Christie -- And Then There Were None
- Her first surge of relief soon died away, and her thoughts, numbed by the sheer terror of pursuit, began to stir again in hopeless circles.Elizabeth George Speare -- The Witch of Blackbird Pond
- For a while sheer anger mastered me.Bram Stoker -- Dracula
- We can do nothing else, it is a sheer necessity.Erich Maria Remarque -- All Quiet on the Western Front
- Everyone was rather amazed at the sheer size of the gift.Anne Frank -- The Diary of a Young Girl
sheer = complete
sheer = pure
sheer = complete
sheer = pure (used for emphasis)
sheer = complete
sheer = complete
sheer = complete and without restriction
sheer = complete
sheer = total (used for emphasis)
3 —as in:
a sheer cliff
Definition
so steep it is almost vertical- Be careful on that road. There is a sheer drop-off on the right.
sheer = so steep it is almost vertical
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- A sheer cliff drops from the lighthouse to the sea.
- It was a sheer rock wall, straight up and down and slick with spray, and at first that was all she saw.Jeanne DuPrau -- The City of Ember
- It was a sheer drop of ten or twenty metres, with boulders at the bottom.George Orwell -- 1984
- It's pretty sheer. [the cliff]Agatha Christie -- And Then There Were None
- 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.Aldous Huxley -- Brave New World
- A fountain of books sprang down upon Montag as he climbed shuddering up the sheer stairwell.Ray Bradbury -- Fahrenheit 451
- [of the Thumb] Its great north wall, which had never been climbed, rises sheer and clean for six thousand feet from the glacier at its base, twice the height of Yosemite's El Capitan.Jon Krakauer -- Into the Wild
- 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.William Golding -- Lord of the Flies
- To the west was a great valley, and then, rising far away, great jagged mountain fastnesses, rising peak on peak, the sheer rock studded with mountain ash and thorn, whose roots clung in cracks and crevices and crannies of the stone.Bram Stoker -- Dracula
sheer = so steep it is almost vertical
sheer = very steep or vertical
sheer = so steep it is almost vertical
sheer = steep
sheer = so steep it is almost vertical
sheer = so steep it is almost vertical
sheer = so steep it is almost vertical
sheer = so steeply as to be almost vertical
sheer = so steep it is almost vertical
4 —as in:
sheered to the left
Definition
change direction abruptly; or to cause such a change of direction — (usually said of a boat)- The boat sheered to port to avoid a collision.
sheered = turned sharply
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- The boat sheered toward the whale and silenced the engines drifting forward until it was about 100 yards away.
- "How shall I know Sea Cow when I meet him?" said Kotick, sheering off.Rudyard Kipling -- The Jungle Book
- ...and when one tried to get the thing straight the argument sheered off, bringing up fresh, unpleasant matter.William Golding -- Lord of the Flies
- Sometimes he sheered off the subject, or turned the conversation by pretending not to understand, but generally he answered all I asked most frankly.Bram Stoker -- Dracula
- The ponderous walls sheered away from the river.Zane Grey -- The Rainbow Trail
- Beyond Bernardino Link sheered off the road and put the car to a long, low-rising slope.Zane Grey -- The Light of Western Stars
- Her gown was as thin as Mama's sheers in the dining room.Jill McCorkle -- Ferris Beach
- The boat sheered out with a rush, and the hunter steadied it to a parallel course some twenty feet from the side of the Ghost.Jack London -- Sea Wolf
- I sheered her well inshore—the water being deepest near the bank, as the sounding-pole informed me.Joseph Conrad -- Heart of Darkness
sheered = turned sharply
sheering = changing direction quickly
sheered = abruptly changed direction
sheered = change direction abruptly
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