All 7 Uses of
sheer
in
The Deerslayer
- It was no sooner free from the incumbrance of the branches, than it swung into the stream, sheering quite close to the western shore, by the force of the current.†
Chpt 4 *
- By sheering first to one side of the lake, and then to the other, Deerslayer managed to create an uncertainty as to his object; and, doubtless, the savages, who were unquestionably watching his movements, were led to believe that his aim was to communicate with them, at or near this spot, and would hasten in that direction, in order to be in readiness to profit by circumstances.†
Chpt 8
- The fire had been hid by sheering towards the shore, and the latter was nearer, perhaps, than was desirable.†
Chpt 16
- In the mean while the Ark swept onward, and by the time the scene with the torches was enacting beneath the trees, it had reached the open lake, Floating Tom causing it to sheer further from the land with a sort of instinctive dread of retaliation.†
Chpt 19
- With such feelings she gave a sweep with her paddle, and sheered off from the fringe of dark hemlocks beneath the shades of which she was so near entering, and held her way again, more towards the centre of the lake.†
Chpt 20
- Judith sobbed over them, until again and again she felt compelled to lay them aside from sheer physical inability to see; her eyes being literally obscured with tears.†
Chpt 24 *
- …of a few minutes to undergo the tortures of an Indian revenge, and he was prepared to meet his fate manfully; but, the delay proved far more trying than the nearer approach of suffering, and the intended victim began seriously to meditate some desperate effort at escape, as it might be from sheer anxiety to terminate the scene, when he was suddenly summoned, to appear once more in front of his judges, who had already arranged the band in its former order, in readiness to receive him.†
Chpt 27
Definitions:
-
(sheer as in: a sheer blouse) typically of fabric: very thin and delicate -- often transparent
-
(sheer as in: sheer to the left) change direction; or to cause such a change of direction -- usually abruptly