sheer

Pluralsheers

Formssheers, sheering, sheered

1. 1
   adjective

   Used before a noun to emphasize the great amount or degree of something.

   The sheer volume of paperwork delayed the whole project.

   He climbed the last stretch on sheer determination alone.

   Similarpure

   Note

   Here sheer measures rather than classifies. It joins nouns of quantity such as size, toll and volume, usually after the or a possessive (the army's sheer size). Compare the "utter" sense: sheer nonsense means nothing but nonsense, while the sheer toll means the toll was enormous, not that it was purely a toll.

2. 2
   adjective

   Very steep, rising or falling almost vertically.

   The waterfall plunged over a sheer rock wall into the gorge.

   Hikers roped up before traversing the sheer face above the valley.

   Similarsteep, vertical, perpendicular

   Oppositegentle, gradual

3. 3
   adjective

   Of a fabric, very thin and almost transparent.

   Like thin glass that lets you see shapes through it.

   The dress had sheer sleeves that revealed the arms beneath.

   Designers favored sheer fabrics throughout the summer collection.

   Similarthin, see-through, diaphanous

   Oppositeopaque, thick, heavy

   Note

   A textile word for cloth that light passes through: nylons, gowns, summer sleeves. It goes back to Old English sċǣre, "pure, shining, clear", so clarity came before thinness. This sense grades freely. Alexander Alderson's The Subtle Minotaur (1954) has "the sheerest of the nylons." Diaphanous and see-through are its near neighbors, and thin is the plainest.

4. 4
   adjective

   Downright and complete; utter and unmixed with anything else.

   His account of the night was sheer fabrication from start to finish.

   Catching the last train was sheer luck.

   Similarutter, complete, absolute, downright, outright

   Note

   An extension of the old "unmixed" sense to things that are nothing but themselves: sheer genius, sheer nonsense, sheer luck. Utter, downright and unmitigated are its near synonyms. Spell it with two e's. When Nancy Wechsler and Christine Delphy wrote "a shear act of suicide" in 1981, the slip earned a sic, because shear is the cutting verb.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A thin, transparent curtain or length of fabric.

   A pale sheer drifted in the breeze from the open window.

   The decorator layered linen sheers behind the velvet curtains.

   Note

   The adjective of the see-through fabric sense turned into a noun. It usually comes in the plural, either for curtains hung to let in daylight or, in sewing, as a class of fabric alongside silkies and lingerie. A single panel can be a sheer, but decorators generally talk about sheers.

6. 6
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The upward curve of a ship's main deck or gunwale, running from bow to stern.

   The designer increased the sheer to keep the bow dry in heavy seas.

   Traditional dories show a strong sheer from stem to stern.

   Note

   A boatbuilder's word, and a separate word from the sheer of fabric and cliffs: it perhaps comes from Dutch scheren, "to move aside, skim". It names the sweep of the deck line, which typically rises toward bow and stern. The rise sheds water and gives more freeboard at the ends, so a strong sheer keeps a bow dry in heavy seas.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   A sudden swerve of a ship away from its course.

   The ship's sheer at anchor swung her broadside to the tide.

   An unexpected sheer sent the dinghy off toward the buoy.

   Similarswerve, yaw

   Note

   The same Dutch-derived word as the deck's curve, here naming a movement rather than a shape. A sheer is a ship's sudden swing off its heading, caused by wind, current or the helm. It is especially familiar to anyone who has watched a vessel ride at anchor while wind and tide pull against each other.

8. 8
   verbintransitive

   To swerve away from a set course, as a ship.

   The ship sheered violently as the gust struck her beam.

   Heavy vessels sheer at anchor when wind and tide oppose each other.

   Similarswerve, veer, yaw

   Note

   The verb behind the sudden swerve, and it works both ways. A ship can sheer out of line on its own, or a pilot can sheer her, as the narrator of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899) "sheered her well inshore." Its past tense is regular: sheered.

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