bright; clear; pure; unmixed.-very thin or transparent; -- applied to fabrics; as, sheer muslin.-being only what it seems to be; obvious; simple; mere; downright; as, sheer folly; sheer nonsense.-stright up and down; vertical; prpendicular.-clean; quite; at once.-to 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.-the longitudinal upward curvature of the deck, gunwale, and lines of a vessel, as when viewed from the side.-the position of a vessel riding at single anchor and swinging clear of it.-a turn or change in a course.-shears see shear.