SHEERING
Verb
sheering
present participle of sheer
Anagrams
• greenish, rehinges
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