A sheer precipice of a thousand feet.
J. D. Hooker.
It was at least Nine roods of sheer ascent.
Wordsworth.
Sheer, adv. Clean; quite; at once. [Obs.] Milton.
Sheer, v. t. [See Shear.] To shear. [Obs.] Dryden.
Sheer, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Sheered (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Sheering.] [D.
sheren to shear, cut, withdraw, warp. See Shear.] 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.