Sheer vs Start - What's the difference?
sheer | start |
(textiles) Very thin or transparent.
* '>citation
(obsolete) Pure; unmixed.
* Shakespeare
* Shakespeare
Being only what it seems to be; mere.
* 2012 , July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited,
Very steep; almost vertical or perpendicular.
Used to emphasize the amount or degree of something.
*
, title=The Mirror and the Lamp
, chapter=2 * 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):
(nautical) The curve of the main deck or gunwale from bow to stern.
(nautical) An abrupt swerve from the course of a ship.
(chiefly, nautical) To swerve from a course.
* 1899 ,
(obsolete) To shear.
(Webster 1913)
The beginning of an activity.
* Shakespeare
A sudden involuntary movement.
* L'Estrange
* Robert Louis Stevenson, Olalla
The beginning point of a race, a board game, etc.
An appearance in a sports game from the beginning of the match.
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=February 12
, author=Ian Hughes
, title=Arsenal 2 - 0 Wolverhampton\
, work=BBC
A young plant germinated]] in a pot to be [[transplant, transplanted later.
(label) To begin, commence, initiate.
# To set in motion.
#* (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
#* , chapter=22
, title= # To begin.
#* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Peter Wilby)
, volume=189, issue=6, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= # (senseid)To initiate operation of a vehicle or machine.
# To put or raise (a question, an objection); to put forward (a subject for discussion).
# To bring onto being or into view; to originate; to invent.
#* Sir (1628–1699)
To begin an activity.
* , chapter=1
, title= To startle or be startled; to move or be moved suddenly.
# To jerk suddenly in surprise.
#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
#* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
#* (Isaac Watts) (1674-1748)
# To move suddenly from its place or position; to displace or loosen; to dislocate.
#* Wiseman
# To awaken suddenly.
#* (rfdate) (Mary Shelley)
# To disturb and cause to move suddenly; to startle; to alarm; to rouse; to cause to flee or fly.
#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
To break away, to come loose.
* 1749 , (John Cleland), (w) (Penguin 1985 reprint), page 66:
(nautical) To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from.
A tail, or anything projecting like a tail.
A handle, especially that of a plough.
The curved or inclined front and bottom of a water wheel bucket.
The arm, or level, of a gin, drawn around by a horse.
(Webster 1913)
As an adjective sheer
is (textiles) very thin or transparent.As an adverb sheer
is (archaic) clean; quite; at once.As a noun sheer
is (nautical) the curve of the main deck or gunwale from bow to stern.As a verb sheer
is (chiefly|nautical) to swerve from a course.As an acronym start is
(law).sheer
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), (m), from (etyl) .Adjective
(en-adj)- sheer ale
- Thou sheer , immaculate, and silver fountain.
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.
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.}}
- 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, verticalEtymology 2
; see also (m).Noun
(en noun)Verb
(en verb)- A horse sheers at a bicycle.
- I sheered her well inshore—the water being deepest near the bank, as the sounding–pole informed me.
- (Dryden)
References
Anagrams
*start
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) stert, from the verb . See below.Noun
(en noun)- The movie was entertaining from start to finish.
- I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, / Straining upon the start .
- He woke with a start .
- Nature does nothing by starts and leaps, or in a hurry.
- The sight of his scared face, his starts and pallors and sudden harkenings, unstrung me
- Jones has been a substitute before, but made his first start for the team last Sunday.
citation, page= , passage=Wilshere, who made his first start for England in the midweek friendly win over Denmark, raced into the penalty area and chose to cross rather than shoot - one of the very few poor selections he made in the match. }}
Etymology 2
From (etyl) . More at (l).Verb
(en verb)- I was engaged in conversation upon a subject which the people love to start in discourse.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.}}
Finland spreads word on schools, passage=Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.}}
- Sensual men agree in the pursuit of every pleasure they can start .
Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’
- But if he start , / It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.
- I start as from some dreadful dream.
- Keep your soul to the work when ready to start aside.
- One, by a fall in wrestling, started the end of the clavicle from the sternum.
- I started from my sleep with horror
- Upon malicious bravery dost thou come / To start my quiet?
- we could, with the greatest ease as well as clearness, see all objects (ourselves unseen) only by applying our eyes close to the crevice, where the moulding of a panel had warped or started a little on the other side.