sheer

English Online Dictionary. What means sheer‎? What does sheer mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʃɪə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ʃɪɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
• Homophones: Scheer, shear

Etymology 1

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”).

Adjective

sheer (comparative sheerer or more sheer, superlative sheerest or most sheer)

1. (textiles) Very thin or transparent.
2. (obsolete) Pure in composition; unmixed; unadulterated.
3. (by extension) Downright; complete; pure.
4. Used to emphasize the amount or degree of something.
5. Very steep; almost vertical or perpendicular.

Synonyms

• (very thin or transparent): diaphanous, see-through, thin
• (pure, unmixed): pure, undiluted
• (downright, complete): downright, pure, unmitigated, utter; see also Thesaurus:total
• (straight up and down): perpendicular, steep, vertical

Derived terms

• sheerly
• sheerness
• sheer-to-waist

Translations

Adverb

sheer (comparative more sheer, superlative most sheer)

1. (archaic) Clean; completely; at once.

Translations

Noun

sheer (plural sheers)

1. A sheer curtain or fabric.

Translations

Etymology 2

Perhaps from Dutch scheren (“to move aside, skim”); see also shear.

Noun

sheer (plural sheers)

1. (nautical) The curve of the main deck or gunwale from bow to stern.
2. (nautical) An abrupt swerve from the course of a ship.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

sheer (third-person singular simple present sheers, present participle sheering, simple past and past participle sheered)

1. (chiefly nautical) To swerve from a course.
2. Obsolete spelling of shear.

Translations

Further reading

• “sheer”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “sheer”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

References

• “sheer”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• here's, Herse, HREEs, Esher, heers, herse, Rhees, Shere, heres

Middle English

Noun

sheer

1. Alternative form of schere