Sheer

1. Bright; clear; pure; unmixed.
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.
4. Stright up and down; vertical; prpendicular.

1. Clean; quite; at once.
   

1. To shear.
   

1. 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.

1. A turn or change in a course.
1. The longitudinal upward curvature of the deck, gunwale, and lines of a vessel, as when viewed from the side.
2. The position of a vessel riding at single anchor and swinging clear of it.
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.
To break sheer (Naut.),
to deviate from sheer, and risk fouling the anchor.