Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.
SHEERED
Verb
sheered
simple past tense and past participle of sheer
Anagrams
• heeders
Source: Wiktionary
SHEER
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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2 April 2025
COVERT
(adjective) secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed; “covert actions by the CIA”; “covert funding for the rebels”
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