All 14 Uses of

sheer
in
The Return of the King

...and beyond, going steeply down, was a road between sheer cliffs, knife-edged against the sky far above.
Chpt 5.2 *

sheer = so steep as to be almost vertical

And when Sam heard that he laughed aloud for sheer delight,
Chpt 6.4 *

sheer = complete -- without restriction

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

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

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

Definitions:

(1) (sheer as in: a sheer blouse)
typically of fabric: very thin and delicate -- often transparent
(2) (sheer as in: sheer fun)
complete or pure -- without restriction, qualification, or other elements (used for emphasis)
(3) (sheer as in: a sheer cliff)
so steep it is almost vertical
(4) (sheer as in: sheer to the left)
change direction; or to cause such a change of direction -- usually abruptly
(5) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
meaning too rare to warrant focus:

Sheer can also be an alternative spelling for shear (to cut).