sheer
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈʃɪə/
ipa: /ʃɪɚ/
rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
homophone: Scheer
homophone: shear
Forms: form: sheerer
form: more sheer
form: sheerest
form: most sheer
Etymology: From Middle English shere, scheere, schere, skere, from Old English sċǣre (“pure, sheer; shining, clear”), from Proto-Germanic *skairiz; supplanted the semantically close shire (dialectal), from Middle English schyre, schire, shire, shir, from Old English sċīr (“clear, bright; brilliant, gleaming, shining, splendid, resplendent; pure”), beside which existed Middle English skyr, from Old Norse skírr (“pure, bright, clear”), both from Proto-Germanic *skīriz (“pure, sheer”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₁y- (“luster, gloss, shadow”).
Cognate with Danish skær, German schier (“sheer”), German Low German schier (“sheer, pure, unadulterated”; “completely, almost”), Dutch schier (“almost”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌴𐌹𐍂𐍃 (skeirs, “clear, lucid”). Outside Germanic, cognate to Albanian hir (“grace, beauty; goodwill”).
Senses: examples: text: Her light, sheer dress caught everyone’s attention.
text: “She sheathed her legs in the sheerest of the nylons that her father had brought back from the Continent, and slipped her feet into the toeless, high-heeled shoes of black suède.”
ref: 1954, Alexander Alderson, chapter 17, in The Subtle Minotaur:
text: She was cunningly dressed in a black, sheer gown with gold ornaments showing her figure to perfection.
ref: 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 53:
topics: business
manufacturing
textiles
synonyms: diaphanous
see-through
thin
glosses: Very thin or transparent.
examples: text: If she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale, score me up for the lying’st knave in Christendom.
ref: c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act INTRODUCTION, scene ii]:
text: Thou sheer, immaculate and silver fountain, / From when this stream through muddy passages / Hath held his current and defiled himself!
ref: 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
synonyms: pure
undiluted
glosses: Pure in composition; unmixed; unadulterated.
examples: text: I think it is sheer genius to invent such a thing.
text: This poem is sheer nonsense.
text: That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired. And if the arts of humbleness failed him, he overcame you by sheer impudence.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: There is no organized movement of gays or feminists that would support individuals and that would make coming out, at the workplace, anything less than a shear ^([sic]) act of suicide.
ref: 1981 December 19, Nancy Wechsler, Christine Delphy, “Politics In France”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 22, page 9:
text: Cycling's complex etiquette contains an unwritten rule that riders in contention for a race win should not be penalised for sheer misfortune.
ref: 2012 July 15, Richard Williams, “Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track”, in The Guardian:
synonyms: word: downright
word: pure
word: unmitigated
word: utter
word: abject
word: frightful
word: absolute
word: arrant
word: categoric
word: categorical
word: complete
word: consummate
word: downright
word: full
word: full-blown
word: full-bore
word: full-on
word: mere
word: outright
word: out-and-out
word: perfect
word: proper
word: pure
word: rank
word: regular
word: right
word: root and branch
word: sheer
word: straight-out
word: thorough
word: thoroughgoing
word: total
word: unadulterated
word: unalloyed
word: unattenuated
word: uncompromising
word: unconditional
word: unfettered
word: unmitigated
word: unqualified
word: unreserved
word: unrestricted
word: utter
word: wholesale
glosses: Downright; complete; pure.
examples: text: The army's sheer size made it impossible to resist.
text: Perhaps as startling as the sheer toll was the devastation to some of the state’s well-known locales. Boardwalks along the beach in Seaside Heights, Belmar and other towns on the Jersey Shore were blown away. Amusement parks, arcades and restaurants all but vanished. Bridges to barrier islands buckled, preventing residents from even inspecting the damage to their property.
ref: 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, “New Jersey Reels From Storm's Thrashing”, in New York Times, retrieved 20 Sep 2021:
glosses: Used to emphasize the amount or degree of something.
examples: text: It was a sheer drop of 180 feet.
synonyms: perpendicular
steep
vertical
glosses: Very steep; almost vertical or perpendicular.
Synonyms: word: diaphanous
word: filmy
word: gauzy
word: gossamer
word: see-through
word: sheer
Hypernyms: word: thin
word: translucent
Derived terms: sheerly
sheerness
sheer-to-waist
Related terms: word: total
word: slope
word: transparent