In 1884, Angelo Moriondo of Turin, Italy, demonstrated the first working example of an espresso machine.
SHEER
absolute, downright, out-and-out, rank, right-down, sheer
(adjective) complete and without restriction or qualification; sometimes used informally as intensifiers; “absolute freedom”; “an absolute dimwit”; “a downright lie”; “out-and-out mayhem”; “an out-and-out lie”; “a rank outsider”; “many right-down vices”; “got the job through sheer persistence”; “sheer stupidity”
bluff, bold, sheer
(adjective) very steep; having a prominent and almost vertical front; “a bluff headland”; “where the bold chalk cliffs of England rise”; “a sheer descent of rock”
plain, sheer, unmingled, unmixed
(adjective) not mixed with extraneous elements; “plain water”; “sheer wine”; “not an unmixed blessing”
diaphanous, filmy, gauzy, gauze-like, gossamer, see-through, sheer, transparent, vaporous, vapourous, cobwebby
(adjective) so thin as to transmit light; “a hat with a diaphanous veil”; “filmy wings of a moth”; “gauzy clouds of dandelion down”; “gossamer cobwebs”; “sheer silk stockings”; “transparent chiffon”; “vaporous silks”
sheer
(adverb) directly; “he fell sheer into the water”
sheer, perpendicularly
(adverb) straight up or down without a break
sheer
(verb) cause to sheer; “She sheered her car around the obstacle”
swerve, sheer, curve, trend, veer, slue, slew, cut
(verb) turn sharply; change direction abruptly; “The car cut to the left at the intersection”; “The motorbike veered to the right”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Proper noun
Sheer (plural Sheers)
A surname.
Statistics
• According to the 2010 United States Census, Sheer is the 31656th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 730 individuals. Sheer is most common among White (93.56%) individuals.
Anagrams
• Esher, Herse, Rhees, heers, here's, heres, herse
Etymology 1
Adjective
sheer (comparative sheerer or more sheer, superlative sheerest or most sheer)
(textiles) Very thin or transparent.
(obsolete) Pure in composition; unmixed; unadulterated.
(by extension) Downright; complete; pure.
Used to emphasize the amount or degree of something.
Very steep; almost vertical or perpendicular.
Synonyms
• (very thin or transparent): diaphanous, see-through, thin
• (pure, unmixed): pure, undiluted
• (downright, complete): downright, mere (obsolete), pure, unmitigated
• (straight up and down): perpendicular, steep, vertical
Adverb
sheer (comparative more sheer, superlative most sheer)
(archaic) Clean; quite; at once.
Noun
sheer (plural sheers)
A sheer curtain or fabric.
Etymology 2
Noun
sheer (plural sheers)
(nautical) The curve of the main deck or gunwale from bow to stern.
(nautical) An abrupt swerve from the course of a ship.
Verb
sheer (third-person singular simple present sheers, present participle sheering, simple past and past participle sheered)
(chiefly, nautical) To swerve from a course.
(obsolete) To shear.
Anagrams
• Esher, Herse, Rhees, heers, here's, heres, herse
Source: Wiktionary
Sheer, a. Etym: [OE. shere, skere, pure, bright, Icel. sk; akin to skirr, AS. scir, OS. skiri, MHG. schir, G. schier, Dan. sk, Sw. skär, Goth. skeirs clear, and E. shine. sq. root157. See Shine, v. i.]
1. Bright; clear; pure; unmixed. "Sheer ale." Shak. Thou sheer, immaculate, and silver fountain. Shak.
2. Very thin or transparent; -- applied to fabrics; as, sheer muslin.
3. Being only what it seems to be; obvious; simple; mere; downright; as, sheer folly; sheer nonsense. "A sheer impossibility." De Quincey. It is not a sheer advantage to have several strings to one's bow. M. Arnold.
4. Stright up and down; vertical; prpendicular. A sheer precipice of a thousand feet. J. D. Hooker. It was at least Nine roods of sheer ascent. Wordsworth.
Sheer, adv.
Definition: Clean; quite; at once. [Obs.] Milton.
Sheer, v. t. Etym: [See Shear.]
Definition: To shear. [Obs.] Dryden.
Sheer, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Sheered; p. pr. & vb. n. Sheering.] Etym: [D. sheren to shear, cut, withdraw, warp. See Shear.]
Definition: To decline or deviate from the line of the proper course; to turn aside; to swerve; as, a ship sheers from her course; a horse sheers at a bicycle. To sheer off, to turn or move aside to a distance; to move away.
– To sheer up, to approach obliquely.
Sheer, n.
1. (Naut.) (a) The longitudinal upward curvature of the deck, gunwale, and lines of a vessel, as when viewed from the side. (b) The position of a vessel riding at single anchor and swinging clear of it.
2. A turn or change in a course. Give the canoe a sheer and get nearer to the shore. Cooper.
3. pl.
Definition: Shears See Shear. Sheer batten (Shipbuilding), a long strip of wood to guide the carpenters in following the sheer plan.
– Sheer boom, a boom slanting across a stream to direct floating logs to one side.
– Sheer hulk. See Shear hulk, under Hulk.
– Sheer plan, or Sheer draught (Shipbuilding), a projection of the lines of a vessel on a vertical longitudinal plane passing through the middle line of the vessel.
– Sheer pole (Naut.), an iron rod lashed to the shrouds just above the dead-eyes and parallel to the ratlines.
– Sheer strake (Shipbuilding), the strake under the gunwale on the top side. Totten.
– To break sheer (Naut.), to deviate from sheer, and risk fouling the anchor.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
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PRESCRIPTIVE
(adjective) pertaining to giving directives or rules; “prescriptive grammar is concerned with norms of or rules for correct usage”
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