Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (a.) Utter; complete; steep; thin or transparent; -- applied to fabrics.

2. (v. i.) Very thin or transparent; -- applied to fabrics; as, sheer muslin.

3. (v. i.) Being only what it seems to be; obvious; simple; mere; downright; as, sheer folly; sheer nonsense.

4. (v. i.) Straight up and down; vertical; perpendicular.

5. (adv.) Clean; quite; at once.

6. (v. t.) To shear.

7. (v. i.) 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.

8. (n.) The longitudinal upward curvature of the deck, gunwale, and lines of a vessel, as when viewed from the side.

9. (n.) The position of a vessel riding at single anchor and swinging clear of it.

10. (n.) A turn or change in a course.

11. (n.) Shears See Shear.