Plain vs Sheer - What's the difference?

plain | sheer | Related terms |

Plain is a related term of sheer.

In obsolete|lang=en terms the difference between plain and sheer

is that plain is (obsolete) a while sheer is (obsolete) to shear.

As adjectives the difference between plain and sheer

is that plain is while sheer is (textiles) very thin or transparent.

As adverbs the difference between plain and sheer

is that plain is (colloquial) simply while sheer is (archaic) clean; quite; at once.

As nouns the difference between plain and sheer

is that plain is (rare|poetic) a lamentation or plain can be an expanse of land with relatively low relief while sheer is (nautical) the curve of the main deck or gunwale from bow to stern.

As verbs the difference between plain and sheer

is that plain is to lament, bewail or plain can be (obsolete|transitive) to plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface while sheer is (chiefly|nautical) to swerve from a course.

plain

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) pleyn, playn, (etyl) plain, plein, from (etyl) .

Adjective

(er)

* Bible, (w) xl. 4

The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain .

Simple.

# Ordinary; lacking adornment or ornamentation; unembellished.

#* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)

, magazine=(American Scientist), title= The Evolution of Eyeglasses , passage=The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.}}

# Of just one colour; lacking a pattern.

# Simple in habits or qualities; unsophisticated, not exceptional, ordinary.

#* (Henry Hammond) (1605-1660)

plain yet pious Christians

#* (Abraham Lincoln) (1809-1865)

the plain people

# (label) Having only few ingredients, or no additional ingredients or seasonings; not elaborate, without toppings or extras.

# (label) Containing no extended or nonprinting characters (especially in plain text).

Obvious.

# Evident to one's senses or reason; manifest, clear, unmistakable.

#* 1843 , (Thomas Carlyle), '', book 2, ch. XV, ''Practical — Devotional

In fact, by excommunication or persuasion, by impetuosity of driving or adroitness in leading, , it is now becoming plain everywhere, is a man that generally remains master at last.

# Downright; total, unmistakable (as intensifier).

Open.

# Honest and without deception; candid, open; blunt.

#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

an honest mind, and plain

# Clear; unencumbered; equal; fair.

#* Felton

Our troops beat an army in plain fight.

Not unusually beautiful; unattractive.

Synonyms

* no-frills * normal * ordinary * simple * unadorned * unseasoned * See also

Antonyms

* bells and whistles * decorative * exotic * fancy * ornate

Derived terms

* plain and simple * plain as a pikestaff * plain as the nose on one's face * plain chocolate * plain clothes * plain-dealing * plain film * plain flour * plain-hearted * plain Jane * plain-laid * plain line * plain paper * plain sailing * plain song/plainsong * plain-spoken * plain text * plain-vanilla * plain weave * plain-winged * plainly * plainness

Adverb

(-)

(colloquial) Simply

It was just plain stupid.

I plain forgot.

Etymology 2

From (etyl) plainer, pleiner, variant of (etyl) and (etyl) pleindre, plaindre, from (etyl) plangere, present active infinitive of .

Alternative forms

* plein

Noun

(en noun)

(rare, poetic) A lamentation.

* 1815 , Sir , The Lady of the Isles , Canto IV, part IX

The warrior-threat, the infant's plain ,

The mother's screams, were heard in vain;

Verb

(en verb)

To lament, bewail.

to plain a loss

* Bishop Joseph Hall

Thy mother could thee for thy cradle set / Her husband's rusty iron corselet; / Whose jargling sound might rock her babe to rest, / That never plain' d of his uneasy nest.

* , More Poems , XXV, lines 5-9

Then came I crying, and to-day,

With heavier cause to plain ,

Depart I into death away,

Not to be born again.

Etymology 3

From (etyl) plain, from (etyl) .

Noun

(wikipedia plain) (en noun)

An expanse of land with relatively low relief.

* Milton

Him the Ammonite / Worshipped in Rabba and her watery plain .

* 1961 , J. A. Philip. Mimesis in the ''Sophistês'' of Plato . In: Proceedings and Transactions of the American Philological Association 92. p. 467.

For Plato the life of the philosopher is a life of struggle towards the goal of knowledge, towards “searching the heavens and measuring the plains , in all places seeking the nature of everything as a whole”

A battlefield.

(Arbuthnot)

* Shakespeare

Lead forth my soldiers to the plain .

(obsolete) A .

Synonyms

* flatlands * high plain * plateau * prairie * steppe

Antonyms

* cliff * gorge * mountain * vale

Derived terms

* abyssal plain * alluvial plain * flood plain/floodplain * gibber plain * Great Plains * peneplain * Plains * plain wanderer * salt plain * the rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain

Verb

(en verb)

(obsolete) To plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface.

* Wither

We would rake Europe rather, plain the East.

(obsolete) To make plain or manifest; to explain.

* Shakespeare

What's dumb in show, I'll plain in speech.

Statistics

Anagrams

* English degree adverbs ----

sheer

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), (m), from (etyl) .

Adjective

(en-adj)

(textiles) Very thin or transparent.

* '>citation

(obsolete) Pure; unmixed.

* Shakespeare

sheer ale

* Shakespeare

Thou sheer , immaculate, and silver fountain.

Being only what it seems to be; mere.

* 2012 , July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track

Cycling's complex etiquette contains an unwritten rule that riders in contention for a race win should not be penalised for sheer misfortune.

Very steep; almost vertical or perpendicular.

Used to emphasize the amount or degree of something.

, title=The Mirror and the Lamp , chapter=2 citation , passage=That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired. And if the arts of humbleness failed him, he overcame you by sheer impudence.}}

* 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/nyregion/new-jersey-continues-to-cope-with-hurricane-sandy.html?hp]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):

Perhaps as startling as the sheer toll was the devastation to some of the state’s well-known locales. Boardwalks along the beach in Seaside Heights, Belmar and other towns on the Jersey Shore were blown away. Amusement parks, arcades and restaurants all but vanished. Bridges to barrier islands buckled, preventing residents from even inspecting the damage to their property.

Synonyms

* (very thin or transparent) diaphanous, see-through, thin * downright, mere, pure, undiluted, unmitigated * (straight up and down) perpendicular, steep, vertical

Adverb

(en adverb)

(archaic) clean; quite; at once.

(Milton)

Etymology 2

; see also (m).

Noun

(en noun)

(nautical) The curve of the main deck or gunwale from bow to stern.

(nautical) An abrupt swerve from the course of a ship.

Verb

(en verb)

(chiefly, nautical) To swerve from a course.

A horse sheers at a bicycle.

* 1899 ,

I sheered her well inshore—the water being deepest near the bank, as the sounding–pole informed me.

(obsolete) To shear.

(Dryden)

References

(Webster 1913)