| 释义 |
sheerly, adv.|ˈʃɪəlɪ|
Also 5 Sc. scheirly, 6 sheerely.
[f. sheer a. + -ly2.]
†1. Brightly, clearly. Obs.
c1470Gol. & Gaw. 477 With gold and goulis in greyne, Schynand scheirly and scheyne.
2. Completely, entirely, wholly; thoroughly; purely, simply. (Cf. sheer adv.)
16012nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. i. iii. 343 This libel of Cambridge..will sell sheerely vnderhand. c1618Fletcher Mad Lover v, H'as out-done all, Outstript 'em sheerly. 1786Burns Ep. Major Logan ix, Eve's bonie squad, priests wyte them sheerly For our grand fa'. 1810in 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. 1843Blackw. Mag. LIV. 313 A man is neither a brute, nor a god,..but simply and sheerly a Man. 1880Bertha Thomas Violin-Player I. i. 11 He sheerly frightened the wits out of her comrade.
3. Sharply; with sharp cleavage or division.
1813Scott 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. 1866W. 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.
1879Stevenson Ess. Trav., Amateur Emigrant (1905) 23 In the centre the companion ladder plunged down sheerly like an open pit. 1920C. M. Grieve Northern Numbers 69 The barrier..Lifts sheerly..To the unknowledgeable skies. 1947E. Meynell Sussex i. 15 Across the road,..the chalk drops again almost as sheerly, down to the water-levels and the Ouse valley. 1964G. 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. |