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vocabulary
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sheer
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

sheer as in:  a sheer blouse

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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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    She likes sheer silk stockings.
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    At work, the blouse is too sheer to wear without a coat.
    sheer = thin and delicate
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    Eerie nine-hundred-year-old petroglyphs and pictographs decorate its sheer walls.  (source)
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    The sheer fabric softly glows.  (source)
    sheer = thin and delicate
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    Kate's hands were always busy, mostly at drawn work on the sheerest of lawn handkerchiefs.  (source)
    sheerest = thinnest or most delicate
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    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)
    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.
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    I sit on the window seat, looking out through the semisheer of the curtains.†  (source)
    semisheer = half or partially "sheer"
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    "The skirt will be how long?" Mother said. "And sheer?"  (source)
    sheer = thin and delicate
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    And perhaps one of the reasons why so many fashion trends don't make it into mainstream America is that simply, by sheerest bad fortune, they never happen to meet the approval of a Connector along the way.†  (source)
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    But still, There was no doubt that he was, in spite of the sheerness of the Cliffs, heading in an upward direction.†  (source)
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    They were the plainest men's pajamas, of a semisheer white cotton-poly.†  (source)
    semisheer = half or partially "sheer"
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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.  (source)
    sheer = thin and transparent
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    BOTARD: [following the procession, raising his hands to heaven] It's the sheerest madness!†  (source)
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sheer as in:  sheer fun

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    It was a demonstration of sheer stupidity.
    sheer = complete
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    The last part of the will was sheer lunacy.  (source)
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    Did you think they were dying from the pleasure of your exertions? From the sheer transported bliss?  (source)
    sheer = pure (without other reasons)
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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.  (source)
    sheer = (used for emphasis)
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    The sheerest smile brushed his lips, and heat rushed up my body.  (source)
    sheerest = purest
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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.  (source)
    sheer = (used for emphasis)
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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.  (source)
    sheerest = most complete or purest
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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.  (source)
    sheer = pure (used for emphasis)
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    Of course all that was the sheerest hypocrisy!  (source)
    sheerest = purest
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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.  (source)
    sheer = pure (without other reasons)
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    He had been worn down by the sheer duration of Dad's droning.  (source)
    sheer = pure (used for emphasis)
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    Xenobiologists and xenopsychologists can't accept the idea that a starpilot scooped them by sheer guesswork.  (source)
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    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)
    sheer = pure (without other reasons)
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sheer as in:  a sheer cliff

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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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    On either side was a sheer wall of dark reddish stone, glistening with dampness.  (source)
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    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
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    The hem of her dress drips; her shoes squelch out water; to both sides rise sheer walls.  (source)
    sheer = so steep it is almost vertical
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    But the idea is there, looming up solid and unavoidable, a sheer rock face: I could have stopped it.  (source)
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    A fountain of books sprang down upon Montag as he climbed shuddering up the sheer stairwell.  (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.  (source)
    sheer = so steeply 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.  (source)
    sheer = so steep they are almost vertical
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    Helene cranes her neck back and stares up the sheer cliff face.  (source)
    sheer = so steep it is almost vertical
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    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)
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    Scraggly bushes and grass grew on thin ledges in the sheer walls, with a few birds' nests tucked into them.  (source)
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    In ROTC, he had done multiple rope courses, rappelling down sheer cliffs.  (source)
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    It was a sheer drop of ten or twenty metres, with boulders at the bottom.  (source)
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sheer as in:  sheer to the left

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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.  (source)
    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.  (source)
    sheering = causing abrupt change of direction of the
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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.  (source)
    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.  (source)
    sheering = changing direction quickly
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    She was certain her eyes wheeled like a panicked horse's when Trina tested her cropping sheers.†  (source)
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    Bree only snorted in answer but he did sheer away to his right.  (source)
    sheer = change direction
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    He sheered away from it-where was she?†  (source)
    sheered = changed direction suddenly; or caused such a change of direction
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    But the horse slowed, sheering into the curb.†  (source)
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    He pointed up at our house, where the sheers in my window were pulled off to one side.†  (source)
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    The very remembrance sheered off his morbid introspection.†  (source)
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    The brig was sheering swiftly and giddily through a long, cresting swell.†  (source)
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    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)
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rare meaning

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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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    Sheer white silk with rainbow trimming was slipped over her arms.  (source)
    Sheer = alternate spelling of shears (scissors)
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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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    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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    A few rivets sheered off, each with a piercing screeeeek.  (source)
    sheered = alternate spelling of sheared (cut)
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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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