sheerly, adv.
(ˈʃɪəlɪ)
Also 5 Sc. scheirly, 6 sheerely.
[f. sheer a. + -ly2.]
† 1. Brightly, clearly. Obs.
| c 1470 Gol. & Gaw. 477 With gold and goulis in greyne, Schynand scheirly and scheyne. |
2. Completely, entirely, wholly; thoroughly; purely, simply. (Cf. sheer adv.)
| 1601 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. i. iii. 343 This libel of Cambridge..will sell sheerely vnderhand. c 1618 Fletcher Mad Lover v, H'as out-done all, Outstript 'em sheerly. 1786 Burns Ep. Major Logan ix, Eve's bonie squad, priests wyte them sheerly For our grand fa'. 1810 in Dk. Buckingham Court & Cab. Geo. III (1855) IV. 430 The cause of the Ministerial majority is..attributed..sheerly to their having the better of the argument. 1843 Blackw. Mag. LIV. 313 A man is neither a brute, nor a god,..but simply and sheerly a Man. 1880 Bertha Thomas Violin-Player I. i. 11 He sheerly frightened the wits out of her comrade. |
3. Sharply; with sharp cleavage or division.
| 1813 Scott Trierm. iii. xxiii, Through gullet and through spinal bone, The trenchant blade had sheerly gone. 1823 ― Quentin D. ii, Snares and traps, armed with scythe⁓blades, which shred off the unwary passenger's limb as sheerly as a hedge-bill lops off a hawthorn-sprig. 1866 W. R. Alger Solit. Nat. & Man ii. 70 When he feels the poor atom, self, sheerly contrasted with the vast cold mass of all humanity beside. |
4. With vertical or very steep ascent or descent.
| 1879 Stevenson Ess. Trav., Amateur Emigrant (1905) 23 In the centre the companion ladder plunged down sheerly like an open pit. 1920 C. M. Grieve Northern Numbers 69 The barrier..Lifts sheerly..To the unknowledgeable skies. 1947 E. Meynell Sussex i. 15 Across the road,..the chalk drops again almost as sheerly, down to the water-levels and the Ouse valley. 1964 G. B. Schaller Year of Gorilla (1965) vii. 184 We followed a buffalo trail upward to the base of the huge rock wall that rose sheerly to the peaked summit. |