sheerin a sentencegrouped by contextual meaning
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In the kitchen, I want sheer curtains that I can see through.
sheer = so thin and delicate as to be transparent
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At work, the blouse is too sheer to wear without a coat.
sheer = thin and delicate
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She likes sheer silk stockings.
sheer = so thin and delicate as to be transparent
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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.
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sheer = thin and delicate
- The sheer fabric softly glows. (source)
- Eerie nine-hundred-year-old petroglyphs and pictographs decorate its sheer walls. (source)
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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.
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sheer = thin and transparent
- And she could believe it, with all the granite and limestone massed around them, and the newer towers, curtained sheer, of reflecting glass and anodized aluminum, and every office empty of human trace today, except in basements maybe where paper was spun through microfilm machines, a billion checks a second. (source)
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Her red skin suit was studded with silver stars and covered with a sheer emerald sweep shirt left loose and open.
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sheer = thin and delicate
- Angela was wearing a red dress, too, smocked at the top with a low neckline, long puffy sleeves, and folds of the thin sheer material that hung in different lengths about six inches above her knees. (source)
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Kate's hands were always busy, mostly at drawn work on the sheerest of lawn handkerchiefs.
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sheerest = thinnest or most delicate
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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.
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sheer = thin
- It's semisheer, I can see through it.† (source)
- But still, There was no doubt that he was, in spite of the sheerness of the Cliffs, heading in an upward direction.† (source)
- She remembered her wild drives to the Ohio as a young woman, the strangely iridescent skin of the water, the sheerness of the limestone banks, the wind lifting her hair.† (source)
- They were the plainest men's pajamas, of a semisheer white cotton-poly.† (source)
- 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)
- There was a sheerness, the smoothest rigor to her cheek, as if it were the keen wall of a canyon.† (source)
- As I struggled, the concrete wall behind me pierced through the sheerness of my cover-up and grated against my skin.† (source)
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I watched them wiggle and leap through the aisles, their thin legs covered only by sheer tights.
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sheer = thin and delicate
- "The skirt will be how long?" Mother said. "And sheer?" (source)
- Eve paid little attention to the billowing balloon skirt and sheer bodice that caused such a furor of approval from the attendees. (source)
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Then they were everywhere at once again, looped about each other, everything new for the second time, and she closed her eyes to see them together, which she could almost do, which she could do for the sheerest time, bodies turned and edged and sidled, one way and the other, this and that concurrent, here but also there, like back-fronted Picasso lovers.
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sheerest = slightest
- I sit on the window seat, looking out through the semisheer of the curtains.† (source)
- I wished I could be just the same as they, I wished for the simple sheerness of their anticipation, whether it was born from desire or lonesomeness or fear or anger or dread.† (source)
- He became foreman of the engineers in the dockyard at Sheerness.† (source)
- She remembered running over the breakwater at Sheerness and finding the boat.† (source)
- At twenty, owing to her health, she had left Sheerness.† (source)
- She seemed so far away from her girlhood, she wondered if it were the same person walking heavily up the back garden at the Bottoms as had run so lightly up the breakwater at Sheerness ten years before.† (source)
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A moment later I could see her peering at me from behind the sheer white curtain of the door window, her eyes terrified.
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sheer = thin and transparent
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She got the job through sheer persistence.
sheer = pure
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She had a look of sheer joy.
sheer = complete
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- It was a demonstration of sheer stupidity.
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It's a tranquillity born of sheer immensity; it calms with its very magnitude, which renders the merely human of no consequence.
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sheer = pure (used for emphasis)
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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.
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sheer = (used for emphasis)
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I didn't cut this fella off for the sheer unadulterated pleasure of it, although it is an excellent weight-loss strategy.
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sheer = pure (without other reasons)
- The car swerves to avoid him, and by sheer luck Connor's momentum takes him just a few inches out of the Caddy's path. (source)
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And then, of course, there was the sheer size of the library; tens of thousands of books; thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows.
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sheer = (used for emphasis)
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I remembered then the way they'd slipped from the cracks in my walls and flown for the sheer joy of it.
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sheer = pure (used for emphasis)
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The last part of the will was sheer lunacy.
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sheer = complete
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Did you think they were dying from the pleasure of your exertions? From the sheer transported bliss?
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sheer = pure (without other reasons)
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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.
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sheer = pure
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I looked up to see Miss Caroline standing in the middle of the room, sheer horror flooding her face.
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sheer = complete
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To escape the wolf pack which all the other players became he created reverses and deceptions and acts of sheer mass hypnotism which were so extraordinary that they surprised even him; after some of these plays I would notice him chuckling quietly to himself, in a kind of happy disbelief.
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sheer = complete or utter
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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.
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sheer = complete
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...by sheer bad luck, she happened to barge in.
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sheer = pure -- without other reasons
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Everyone was rather amazed at the sheer size of the gift.
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sheer = total (used for emphasis)
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I walk over to the bed and attempt to hide the sheer panic coursing throughout my body.
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sheer = complete and without restriction
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The work at Siemens, however, was sheer misery.
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sheer = complete
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The sheer blissful joy of...
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sheer = complete and without restriction
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Helene says this without a trace of irony, and I wince at the sheer idiocy of the idea.
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sheer = complete and without restriction OR pure -- without other reasons
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The tears are pushing at the back of my throat, and I'm still struggling for words, and the whole time it's like her face is growing paler and paler, glowing almost, like the sheer white point of a flame; and I have this idea that I'm already seeing her sputter out, her life flickering in front of me, a TV on static.
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sheer = complete or pure
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Liam's hand came out toward me, and the sheer panic at the thought of his touch had me jumping back, trying to put as much air between us as I could.
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sheer = complete
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Despite all of Percy Jackson's power, despite everything he had survived, in the end he was helpless against the sheer strength of the giant—and the inevitability of the prophecy.
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sheer = complete and without restriction
- The sheer audacity of it took my breath away. (source)
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But it strikes me, more and more, as sheer distortion.
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sheer = pure
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And it was sheer bad luck that he sat down on the pile of thistles.
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sheer = pure or complete
- So when I told old Spencer I had to go to the gym and get my equipment and stuff, that was a sheer lie. (source)
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As tough as she was, she had probably never before screamed in her life, yet this was a cry of sheerest child-like terror.
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sheerest = most complete or purest
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Soon the streetlights would come on and slowly the neighborhood would light up, Christmas trees and all the adornments that Mrs. Poole had called sheer tackiness.
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sheer = pure or complete
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And when Sam heard that he laughed aloud for sheer delight,
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sheer = complete -- without restriction
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Suddenly he began writing in sheer panic, only imperfectly aware of what he was setting down.
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sheer = complete (used for emphasis)
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And anyway it's a sheer impossibility that Armstrong can be in the house.
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sheer = complete
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For the sake of the labourers; it would be sheer cruelty to afflict them with excessive leisure.
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sheer = pure (used for emphasis)
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We can do nothing else, it is a sheer necessity.
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sheer = complete
- I was on my way to get roaring drunk from sheer embarrassment when Jordan Baker came out of the house and stood at the head of the marble steps, leaning a little backward and looking with contemptuous interest down into the garden. (source)
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She will die for sheer want of blood to keep the heart's action as it should be.
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sheer = pure (without other reasons)
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The sheerest smile brushed his lips, and heat rushed up my body.
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sheerest = purest
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He had been worn down by the sheer duration of Dad's droning.
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sheer = pure (used for emphasis)
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You did all this chopping and work from sheer goodness, boy?
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sheer = pure (without other reasons)
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I guess I can chalk my almost eighteen years of virginity up to sheer stubbornness.
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sheer = complete and without restriction OR pure -- without other reasons
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We bounded down the sidewalk on a spree of sheer relief, leaping and howling.
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sheer = complete
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After that there was nothing but sheer galloping for some time.
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sheer = complete -- without restriction
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This was gone and there was a curiosity that was less sheer and frontal.
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sheer = complete or pure
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Izzi and I exchange a glance at that—his sheer competence is unnerving.
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sheer = complete and without restriction OR pure -- without other reasons
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I'm never aware of it before it happens, but all of a sudden I find myself standing beside my bed, out of sheer habit.
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sheer = pure (without other reasons)
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Over and over, hour after hour, the men moved, hauling the ship by the sheer force of straining muscle and gasping breath.
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sheer = pure (used for emphasis)
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Shawn was the only person I had ever seen stand up to Dad, the only one whose force of mind, whose sheer tonnage of conviction, could make Dad give way.
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sheer = complete -- without restriction
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In bed at night, as I ponder my many sins and exaggerated shortcomings, I get so confused by the sheer amount of things I have to consider that I either laugh or cry, depending on my mood.
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sheer = total (used for emphasis)
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I sometimes felt a twinge of remorse, when passing by the old place, at ever having taken part in what must have been sheer torment to Arthur Radley—what reasonable recluse wants children peeping through his shutters, delivering greetings on the end of a fishing-pole, wandering in his collards at night?
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sheer = complete
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After another failed attempt at getting the ignition to turn over, I resort to pounding a little harder until I'm pretty much bludgeoning the battery out of sheer frustration.
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sheer = complete and without restriction
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He'd been in a state of sheer panic, and he'd felt a lot of peculiar things; they were nothing but normal physiological responses to extreme stress.
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sheer = complete (used for emphasis)
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The PSFs assigned to their room had been so impressed with the sheer detail of his work that they actually let him finish.
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sheer = complete and without restriction OR pure -- without other reasons
- Mr. Hanson may be half deaf and half blind, but he makes up for that in the sheer volume of homework he assigns. (source)
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Switching on the air conditioning, tilting the vents toward his face, he struggled for breath, as if his lungs had collapsed and he was striving to reinflate them with sheer willpower.
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sheer = pure (used for emphasis)
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And she tried to listen to the woman but could not concentrate because the name lit up her brain, one of those deep sheer flashes that take forty years to happen.
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sheer = complete and without restriction
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But then Faris grabs Dex and uses sheer bulk to turn him around and shove him into the crowd, away from me.
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sheer = complete and without restriction OR pure -- without other reasons
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Watching her snap photographs of the plot markers, meeting her compelling eyes, hearing the compassion in her soft voice, racked by the mystery of her words—I'm not ready to talk to you yet—he had known, by virtue of sheer common sense, that something was rotten.
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sheer = pure -- without other reasons
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Laughed in sheer and healthy delight, in relief that she was finally here and in physical anticipation as well, and he laughed at the shambles they were going to make of the camping trip they were taking and he laughed in the end because he couldn't help it.
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sheer = complete and without restriction
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May be sheer moonshine-just plain lunacy!
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sheer = pure
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He felt certain that O'Brien was about to twist the dial out of sheer wantonness.
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sheer = pure -- without other reasons
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Of course all that was the sheerest hypocrisy!
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sheerest = purest
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At the beginning he had no feeling except sheer incredulity.
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sheer = complete (used for emphasis)
- In sheer malignity, thinking to set back our plans and avenge himself for his ignominious expulsion, this traitor has crept here under cover of night and destroyed our work of nearly a year. (source)
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Himmelstoss maintained that it was sheer laziness and invented a method worthy of himself for curing Tjaden.
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sheer = pure
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It had been a rash act to come here at all, and sheer folly to arrive together; though it was true that they had come by different routes and only met on O'Brien's doorstep.
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sheer = complete (used for emphasis)
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Sheer reaction had kept her immobile.
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sheer = pure (nothing else)
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It was sharply different from the West, where an evening was hurried from phase to phase toward its close, in a continually disappointed anticipation or else in sheer nervous dread of the moment itself.
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sheer = complete
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For a while sheer anger mastered me.
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sheer = complete and without restriction
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And no one there could hope to rival Odysseus,
not for sheer cunning—
at every twist of strategy he excelled us all. (source)sheer = complete and without restriction OR pure -- without other reasons
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Though most of my writing time is spent on notes which I keep in a separate folder, from time to time I have to put down my moods and thoughts out of sheer habit.
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sheer = pure (without other reasons)
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…know who died in the fighting,
you were there yourself.
And one is still alive,
held captive, somewhere, off in the endless seas ….
Ajax, now, went down with his long-oared fleet.
First Poseidon drove him onto the cliffs of Gyrae,
looming cliffs, then saved him from the breakers—
he'd have escaped his doom, too, despite Athena's hate,
if he hadn't flung that brazen boast, the mad blind fool.
"In the teeth of the gods," he bragged, "I have escaped
the ocean's sheer abyss!" (source)sheer = complete and without restriction OR pure -- without other reasons
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Be careful on that road. There is a sheer drop-off on the right.
sheer = so steep it is almost vertical
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- A sheer cliff drops from the lighthouse to the sea.
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It was a sheer rock wall, straight up and down and slick with spray, and at first that was all she saw.
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sheer = very steep or vertical
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[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.
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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)
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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.
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sheer = so steeply as to be almost vertical
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A fountain of books sprang down upon Montag as he climbed shuddering up the sheer stairwell.
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sheer = so steep it is almost vertical
- But the idea is there, looming up solid and unavoidable, a sheer rock face: I could have stopped it. (source)
- The rope is thirty feet long, and this close to the base of the watchtower, the cliffs aren't as sheer. (source)
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The little cabin shrank back against the steep side of the mountain as though half terrified at the hollow immensity of the welkin above, or the almost sheer drop to the valley five hundred feet beneath.
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sheer = so steep as to be almost vertical
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Rising four hundred feet over the nighttime sprawl of modern Athens, the sheer cliffs were topped with a crown of limestone walls.
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sheer = so steep they are almost vertical
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In ROTC, he had done multiple rope courses, rappelling down sheer cliffs.
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sheer = so steep it is almost vertical
- Scraggly bushes and grass grew on thin ledges in the sheer walls, with a few birds' nests tucked into them. (source)
- From that point there was a sheer drop, for the cliff was slightly undercut, and even Gollum could not find a hold of any kind. (source)
- It was a sheer drop of ten or twenty metres, with boulders at the bottom. (source)
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It's pretty sheer. [the cliff]
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sheer = steep
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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.
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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)
- On either side was a sheer wall of dark reddish stone, glistening with dampness. (source)
- A few feet beyond their shoes was a sheer, dizzying drop. (source)
- Helene cranes her neck back and stares up the sheer cliff face. (source)
- My feet scrape against the sheer wall for a terrifying moment before I find the foothold. (source)
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...and beyond, going steeply down, was a road between sheer cliffs, knife-edged against the sky far above.
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sheer = so steep as to be almost vertical
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...the cliffs fell sheer to the sea below,
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sheer = steeply
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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.
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sheer = so steep it is almost vertical
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Now, there's a sheer cliff
plunging steep to the surf at the farthest edge of Gortyn, (source)
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a great floating island it was, and round it all
huge ramparts rise of indestructible bronze
and sheer rock cliffs shoot up from sea to sky. (source)
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…the huge roaring breakers of blue-eyed Amphitrite—
the Clashing Rocks they're called by all the blissful gods.
Not even birds can escape them, no, not even the doves
that veer and fly ambrosia home to Father Zeus:
even of those the sheer Rocks always pick off one
and Father wings one more to keep the number up. (source)
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The boat sheered to port to avoid a collision.
sheered = turned sharply
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- The boat sheered toward the whale and silenced the engines drifting forward until it was about 100 yards away.
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...and when one tried to get the thing straight the argument sheered off, bringing up fresh, unpleasant matter.
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sheered = abruptly changed direction
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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.
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sheering = causing abrupt change of direction of the
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Oddly enough the other horse seemed also to be sheering away to the left, so that in a few seconds the space between them had widened a good deal.
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sheering = changing direction
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Sometimes he sheered off the subject, or turned the conversation by pretending not to understand, but generally he answered all I asked most frankly.
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sheered = swerved (changed to a different topic)
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"How shall I know Sea Cow when I meet him?" said Kotick, sheering off.
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sheering = changing direction quickly
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Bree only snorted in answer but he did sheer away to his right.
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sheer = change direction
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Nothing was more natural than that they should speak of Gray Stoddard's disappearance, since Watauga, Cottonville, and the mountains above were full of the topic; yet husband and wife sheered from it in a sort of terror.
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sheered = changed direction suddenly
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When, far up the track, the block signal snapped from red to green and the long, stabbing probe of the headlight sheered the bend and blared on the station, men looked at their watches and said, "On time."
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sheered = abruptly changed direction on
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- It was sheer defiance.† (source)
- At the back stood a sheer rock wall, twenty or thirty feet high, forming an irregular curve covered with gray ledges and pocked with erosion holes, some so big they looked like caves.† (source)
- Then they'd ask to see the manager, as if through sheer assertiveness they could get the machine fixed.† (source)
- Walking up the alleyway, I ascended a set of stone stairs at the side of the castle, climbing up its sheer wall.† (source)
- "Sheer impudence, that's what it was," Paul replied as he struggled to grasp the situation.† (source)
- Sheer terror filled Thomas, froze him.† (source)
- Part of the problem was the sheer size of the OASIS.† (source)
- When I looked overboard the drop wasn't sheer any more.† (source)
- Eddie tightens every muscle in his body and attempts, by sheer will, to force the tears back into their ducts.† (source)
- Before them, the wide alley of the north transept stretched out like a deep canyon, flanked by sheer cliffs of stained glass.† (source)
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- She felt like a rock climber facing a sheer cliff, searching for cracks and handholds.† (source)
- Amidships the sheer-rail was just awash.† (source)
- When people were not discussing the escaped Death Eaters in the corridors, they were laughing at Gryffindor's abysmal performance in their match against Hufflepuff; the Slytherins were singing Weasley is our King' so loudly and frequently that by sundown Filch had banned it from the corridors out of sheer irritation.† (source)
- To his left was a sheer drop.† (source)
- She pictured Sunny toppling from the tower and onto the ground, pictured her sister's last thoughts being ones of sheer terror.† (source)
- Maybe he saw some trace of all the self-denial, all the sacrifice, all the sheer exertion it had taken her to live with him for all these years, live with his continual condescension and violence, his faultfinding and meanness.† (source)
- Luckily, they seemed to have anticipated the sheer terror felt by people like me.† (source)
- It was sheer luck.† (source)
- What he did to my heart was sheer, inexplicable magic.† (source)
- Williams was sure he could improve the odds by sheer concentration.† (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)
- Thanks to his hard work, his innate ability, and his sheer determination, he was frequently promoted.† (source)
- So I found it sheer hypocrisy for him to label Old Freddy's DISGUSTING and DEGRADING.† (source)
- The sheer scale of his achievement!† (source)
- His only recollection was a feeling of sheer, joyful exuberance, himself in celebration: shouting "A-men!" in the Bethany Church, bashing John McNab's fastballs out of sight, dancing the polka with Grayson.† (source)
- Her mother shook her head quickly, and glanced at the open window covered only by the sheer curtain.† (source)
- There's a tipping point when the sheer volume of death overwhelms you.† (source)
- It was an interesting combination in a man, intelligence and sheer bulk.† (source)
- The sheer volume of training for a space mission is astounding.† (source)
- I don't think I'll ever get used to the sheer size of this place.† (source)
- At that, she stepped out of the waterfall and waded through the water, her sheer underwear clinging to her butt.† (source)
- They came at me like they had never seen grain before, and in that moment everyone got to see the sheer force the media could be and we knew we needed to find some help.† (source)
- As I gazed up at its sheer cliffs, tops disappearing in a reef of ghostly clouds, the idea that this was a magical place didn't seem so ridiculous.† (source)
- Sheets and towels, some sheer curtains for the windows, a big sack of rice.† (source)
- Just with the sheer force of my own awesomeness.† (source)
- It was sheer torture.† (source)
- It was the sheer amount of time the band was forced to play.† (source)
- The walls rise sheer from the water, and from their towers the defenders have a commanding view of the opposite shores for many leagues around.† (source)
- Then he tramped all the way to the pond for the sheer pleasure of it.† (source)
- Taken by surprise and overwhelmed by sheer numbers, the Peacekeepers were initially overcome by the crowds.† (source)
- She crossed her legs, so that the slit in her sheer dress displayed a swath of milk-white skin.† (source)
- In eighteen nineteen—Rufus was right—it was sheer insanity.† (source)
- Sheer pride.† (source)
- Each time, the reaction was the same: sheer horror.† (source)
- The wall was so paralyzingly vast and sheer that its top, bottom and sides passed away beyond the reach of sight.† (source)
- Xenobiologists and xenopsychologists can't accept the idea that a starpilot scooped them by sheer guesswork.† (source)
- I grab at the sheer blue curtain panels and yank them until the rod snaps and the curtains fall around me.† (source)
- As soon as Jason walked in, she fixed him with an expectant look, as if she were trying to extract information out of him by sheer willpower.† (source)
- The hem of a sheer curtain brushed a windowsill.† (source)
- But what Everest lacks in architectural grace, it makes up for with sheer, overwhelming mass.† (source)
- Hana is just climbing out of her parents' car, her blond hair flying in wisps and waves around her face, her semi-sheer tunic slipping off one tan shoulder.† (source)
- Looking back, I'm amazed that sheer simple curiosity didn't overcome these feelings.† (source)
- I would be doing it out of sheer stupidity.† (source)
- I find myself overwhelmed with the sheer volume of it.† (source)
- There was a package of Kents in the breast pocket of Queems's sheer yellow shirt.† (source)
- Waterfalls dotted its sheer sides.† (source)
- We had become, in military terms, a force multiplier, able to do a lot more than you might think based on our sheer numbers alone.† (source)
- Now she seemed intent on playing the piano, dodging bill collectors, forcing us into college through sheer willpower, and riding her bicycle all over Queens.† (source)
- It is a sheer tapestry of justice.† (source)
- An impressive thing it was, the sheer size of its feathered body.† (source)
- But what about the sheer curtains?† (source)
- Eventually they slept from sheer exhaustion.† (source)
- A new sound darkened his voice, a tone of sheer hatred.† (source)
- He got by on guile rather than sheer physical ability.† (source)
- It was unbelievably steep, not quite sheer but almost.† (source)
- Through sheer effort in her panic she made it.† (source)
- Olmsted was awed by the sheer numbers of workers involved.† (source)
- The great rock the big boys had swum through rose sheer out of the white sand—black, tufted lightly with greenish weed.† (source)
- Thanks to Hollywood, the monster looks like Boris Karloff or Lon Chaney and intimidates us by its sheer physical menace.† (source)
- The beach collared most of the southern side of the island, then gave way to a sheer cliff.† (source)
- The only sound you can hear is the swishing of Shiloh's tail, hitting the fence, the soft pad of his paws as he leaps up in the air in sheer, pure happiness; the sloppy slap of his jowls together as he gobbles down the supper I've brought him and then he commences to slobber love all over me as well.† (source)
- Whatever bravery or skill I had ever shown were gifts of God—sheer loans from Him of the talent needed to do a job.† (source)
- Dad set out to prove them wrong by the sheer volume of his work and application of every particle of his energy and intelligence.† (source)
- Looking up the sheer steel canyon separating the two ships, he sees no handy cargo nets stretched between them.† (source)
- "The sheer brutality of his death was horrifying," Donley says.† (source)
- The sheer noisiness of them, of their heavy boots, and loud voices, buzzed on by their sense of urgency, ricochets through the quiet hush of the hospital and breathes some life into the place.† (source)
- Something about watching Mautz in the face of Mr. Ellerby's barrage, along with my sheer terror of Mr. Byrnes, lets me take him on.† (source)
- It was a sheer drop down to Greene Street, ten stories below.† (source)
- Some of my adoration of Babette must have been sheer relief.† (source)
- It was sheer admiration.† (source)
- They were poor warriors, but they often succeeded by sheer force of numbers.† (source)
- Sheer curiosity forced its way past terror and vertigo.† (source)
- Hunched over or not, it was impossible not to be reminded of the sheer impact of his physical presence - the very same that had once reduced two drunken gentlemen to sobriety in the back of a car.† (source)
- They came over to us, greeted us, and out of sheer habit tried to make some kind of conversation, but it was not long before these conversations broke off.† (source)
- Again Mack was struck by the wonder and sheer absurdity of the moment.† (source)
- It was sheer stupidity.† (source)
- I stared at the back of it for a while, trying to see if I could make him turn around with the sheer power of my brain waves, but it was hard to concentrate with Alice doing a Mexican hat dance in her chair.† (source)
- They're brought into being by sheer force of will," the woman on the arm of the chair interjects.† (source)
- Driving into our development occasionally makes me shiver, the sheer number of gaping dark houses—homes that have never known inhabitants, or homes that have known owners and seen them ejected, the house standing triumphantly voided, humanless.† (source)
- He did not have to unlace them all, for the bodice burst open from sheer internal pressure, and her astronomical bosom was able to breathe freely.† (source)
- They slid down onto a wide shelf that led around a sheer rock face.† (source)
- Few of these are successful, but occasionally some, by sheer will and luck and grace, do make it.† (source)
- The bank was steep, nearly a sheer drop-off, and we were going over.† (source)
- Ishmael had hung on to it in part from sheer inertia, in part because driving it reminded him of his father.† (source)
- Gone, to sheer Nothing, past with null made one!† (source)
- The constantness, varietylessness, the sheer weight of sameness drove him to despair and froze his imagination.† (source)
- I think it flattered him that I enjoyed his classes so much I would take them for no materialistic reason like credit and an A, but for the sheer beauty of chemistry itself.† (source)
- Or perhaps the sheer number of places where there were now doors had made it useless to fight in any one.† (source)
- In the three years since my mizuage, I'd forgotten the sheer terror I'd felt when the Doctor finally lowered himself onto me.† (source)
- The relief, the love, the sheer pleasure pushed him forward to grip Gage just as Fox had.† (source)
- For one whole semester the street cars and I shimmied up and scooted down the sheer hills of San Francisco.† (source)
- If a new BMW in the school parking lot gave you clout at Dan's high school, then Apple products and sheer volume of books seemed to grant the cool factor at NHCP.† (source)
- I think in Farmer's case the answer lies somewhere in the apparent craziness, the sheer impracticality, of half of everything he does, including the hike to Casse.† (source)
- Sometimes he thought that her ability to gather information was sheer magic.† (source)
- She was dressed like a bride, in a white gown, white lace hood, and sheer veil, walking toward the altar, down the aisle of that converted barracks.† (source)
- Watching Luke struggle to open the jammed driver's-side door while trying to keep his balance on the steep slope, a slope that became a sheer cliff face only several feet from the front of the car.† (source)
- Redundant though it may sound, we are sheer point of view.† (source)
- Rising straight and sheer from the water, a thousand feet into the night.† (source)
- Right before I told him he should go, I was pretty sure I'd made a sound that was a cross between a sigh of sheer bliss and a moan of ecstasy.† (source)
- But mostly sheer-excitement," he subsequently informed a journalist.† (source)
- 'Dolores has her period!' he cried out loud, out of sheer shock.† (source)
- We drove along a narrow mountainous road that twisted and turned near the edges of sheer drops.† (source)
- By sheer weight and numbers, they pulled me down.† (source)
- They stumbled numbly on, many times falling down into the snow from sheer fatigue and old age.† (source)
- 44 Somewhere near, Charles Halloway's hand lay in a white-hot furnace, melted to sheer nerve and pain.† (source)
- We inched forward for a minute or two but were then forced to stop by the sheer press of bodies.† (source)
- On they went, higher and higher up the dizzying trail, on one side the sheer stone walls and brutal peaks towering above them, and on the other an endless, limitless, bottomless nothing.† (source)
- Before Bree I never knew such sheer, depraved forwardness could be so much fun.† (source)
- Beside him stands a Tribal girl clad in sheer, rose-colored robes, their hems embroidered with tiny round mirrors.† (source)
- The sheer clumsiness of his arguments for keeping soccer off the town fields hinted at a kind of desperation.† (source)
- She touched the edge of the sheer curtains beneath; yellow, brittle, they billowed dust.† (source)
- Here the bank dropped almost sheer to the river, some six feet below.† (source)
- First, though, I was struck by the sheer oddness of seeing myself without benefit of a mirror or photograph.† (source)
- Because there is nothing like the sheer power of numbers to scrub away layers of confusion and contradiction.† (source)
- The building across the ravine was at least a thousand yards away, while behind them there was nothing but the sheer drop to the depths below.† (source)
- But others, many out of sheer necessity, had already found the energy to start over again.† (source)
- The mountains did rise in sheer cliffs on my left, but their steepness shut me out instead of enclosing me.† (source)
- There was an eighty-foot sheer drop from the flag bridge to the sea.† (source)
- Finally they came to a bend in the creek, where the bank was sheer and about ten feet high.† (source)
- Sheer might.† (source)
- A sheer glass door fronted it.† (source)
- "There were a few times where it was sheer madness," says Brian.† (source)
- There was no hard work, only sheer joy.† (source)
- Only the jade-green Indus—sometimes tumbling into a dazzle of white foam—relieves the gray-brown of crags and sheer precipices and steep slopes.† (source)
- Most houses on the block had windows with sheer curtains or shades that looked out on the tree-lined street.† (source)
- The difference between living and dying was sheer luck, many survivors said later.† (source)
- When he spoke, it was in a low, trembling voice, filled with sheer terror.† (source)
- Enter Song, in a sheer robe.† (source)
- Drew is standing in front of me, knuckles bleeding, with a look of such sheer despondence that I feel like I should comfort him.† (source)
- The sheer thought of it was obscene!† (source)
- 'It was sheer accident!' interrupted Frodo.† (source)
- The fifth race, Men, convened the council out of sheer tradition.† (source)
- The entrance to this bluff is a sheer edge of rock with toeholds and an overhanging tree branch, which we grab one at a time, pushing and hauling one another till the three of us stand on the rounded mound of rock as large as a rooftop.† (source)
- Devil!' in sheer mortal panic.† (source)
- If they complain, it's out of sheer ingratitude.† (source)
- Sheer genius.† (source)
- You could feel the energy in the room pick up, from the sheer spectacle of it all.† (source)
- Sheer stubbornness.† (source)
- She was wearing a green dress of some sheer material.† (source)
- He was an engineer and had stopped off on his way home from work the other day by sheer chance.† (source)
- I'm dressed in a midnight-blue Jasper Conran suit, sheer tights, and a pair of suede high heels.† (source)
- Her cheekbones would push out, expressing the sheer force of her will, making her nose even sharper, further elongating her lovely eyes.† (source)
- The sheer momentum of their zeal carried Tom.† (source)
- Jake introduced Lettie to the court reporter, the other lawyers, all names and faces blurred by the sheer number, and he went into a lengthy explanation of the purposes of a deposition.† (source)
- And Tirian breathed fast with the sheer wonder of it, for now he knew that he was looking at one of the great heroes of Narnia, Reepicheep the Mouse who had fought at the great Battle of Beruna and afterwards sailed to the World's end with King Caspian the Seafarer.† (source)
- When I look down, I am stunned by the intense colors of the Earth, the intricate patterns and textures, and sheer beauty of our home planet.† (source)
- I had come down the corridor on sheer determination.† (source)
- Sheer modesty, Brother.† (source)
- It was sheer poisonous hatred.† (source)
- Sheer force of will kept her steady until she got to the plane.† (source)
- It was a fascinating query in light of the manager's size and sheer raw power, both combined with a far-above-average intellect.† (source)
- This was not quite true, but the stories would never die, and the clothes, carriages, the sheer weight of gold braid on the livery of servants, left little doubt as to how vast was the wealth of the wealthiest.† (source)
- Often, I would stop in the midst of our lessons and laugh for the sheer joy of it.† (source)
- The blanket of snow now concealed a sheet of sheer ice.† (source)
- Celia slips on Felicia's sheer bathing suit.† (source)
- Indeed, others might even now be looking for a way down the sheer forty-foot bluff, with the hope of cutting off that route.† (source)
- I trample the planks that a moment before protected the hall like a hand raised in horror to a terrified mouth (sheer poetry, ah!† (source)
- So there was nothing in Lucielia's face when she turned it toward Eugene, standing in her kitchen door holding a ridiculously pink Easter bunny, nothing but sheer relief….† (source)
- It was not a thought-shape; it had no real foam; it was sheer distress, like a cry of agony.† (source)
- I reflect on the sheer waste of children taught to hate when I believe passionately children should be taught to think.† (source)
- I looked out at the sheer craggy quarry walls, the thick weeds, the deep clay pond, the ruins of Braddock's house above.† (source)
- We merely cope with miserable weather—we cope out of sheer necessity!† (source)
- In addition, the sheer amount that has been written about me also seems to indicate that, for whatever reason, a great number of people have a significant interest in me.† (source)
- The sheer volume of call girls, socialites, starlets, and stewardesses escorted into the White House whenever Jackie and the kids are away is beyond the realm of most men's moral or physical capacities.† (source)
- His look of sheer joy stops my breath for a moment.† (source)
- Isn't it sheer chance that she hasn't deserted you long ago?† (source)
- The others look at me like I'm crazy, then start to laugh too at the sheer wonder of it.† (source)
- …themselves became arbiters of what subjects were to be taught, and grammar, by jingo (or Ringo), was not one of them; (2) the notion that in a democratic society language must accommodate itself to the whims, idiosyncrasies, dialects, and sheer ignorance of underprivileged minorities, especially if these happened to be black, Hispanic, and, later on, female or homosexual; (3) the introduction by more and more incompetent English teachers, products of the new system … of ever fancier…† (source)
- I shall leave That which makes my going the sheerest Dream of an afternoon.† (source)
- She wore her sheer white blouse, full black taffeta skirt, heels and her best jewelry—a small gold cross around her neck, which Yaya and Papou had given her for her sixteenth birthday, and an ankle bracelet from Jack.† (source)
- That's my mama," Eddie Sheer gasped in mock surprise.† (source)
- Mark paced the floor out of sheer nervous energy.† (source)
- Montes and Ruiz joined in and fought valiantly but were overpowered by the sheer numbers of their attackers.† (source)
- Sheer insanity.† (source)
- Two tiny splays of vegetation projected from what seemed to be sheer overhanging rock.† (source)
- The sheer volume of it had staggered their minds.† (source)
- I glimpsed a sheer drop.† (source)
- The sheer quantity of Heidi's flesh accentuated just how white she was.† (source)
- We climb the sheer, high walls of Empire Quarry, where they got the 18,630 tons of stone needed to build the Empire State Building.† (source)
- The so-called Empire dresses worn by women at the dawn of the nineteenth century were often as sheer as today's nightgowns.† (source)
- Once again, sheer luck saved the halfling's life, for he saw the stranger before the stranger saw him.† (source)
- The ground facing the enemy was rocky and steep and heavy with trees, and the ground behind him fell away abruptly, a sheer drop of at least a hundred feet, no worry about assault from that side.† (source)
- He pointed up at our house, where the sheers in my window were pulled off to one side.† (source)
- It was quite sheer, so it wasn't much of an effort to remove the entire hem of it.† (source)
- Never fear, son, this Ad-Hoc Congress will do nothing…. or if they pass something through sheer fatigue, it will be so loaded with contradictions that it will have to be thrown out.† (source)
- Sheer ballast.† (source)
- One thousand gravities of sheer.† (source)
- Belly to earth, he began to grovel toward her while his grimace widened into an expression of sheer idiocy.† (source)
- Sheer politeness.† (source)
- The same sheer jungle.† (source)
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show 6 examples with meaning too rare to warrant focus
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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)
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…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
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A few rivets sheered off, each with a piercing screeeeek.
(source)
sheered = alternate spelling of sheared (cut)
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Sheer white silk with rainbow trimming was slipped over her arms.
(source)
sheer = alternate spelling of shears (scissors)
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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
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THE WOMAN: You had two boxes of size nine sheers for me, and I want them!
(source)
sheers = scissors
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