What's the difference between clean and sheer?

Clean


Definition:

  • (superl.) Free from dirt or filth; as, clean clothes.
  • (superl.) Free from that which is useless or injurious; without defects; as, clean land; clean timber.
  • (superl.) Free from awkwardness; not bungling; adroit; dexterous; as, aclean trick; a clean leap over a fence.
  • (superl.) Free from errors and vulgarisms; as, a clean style.
  • (superl.) Free from restraint or neglect; complete; entire.
  • (superl.) Free from moral defilement; sinless; pure.
  • (superl.) Free from ceremonial defilement.
  • (superl.) Free from that which is corrupting to the morals; pure in tone; healthy.
  • (superl.) Well-proportioned; shapely; as, clean limbs.
  • (adv.) Without limitation or remainder; quite; perfectly; wholly; entirely.
  • (adv.) Without miscarriage; not bunglingly; dexterously.
  • (a.) To render clean; to free from whatever is foul, offensive, or extraneous; to purify; to cleanse.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Squadron Leader Kevin Harris, commander of the Merlins at Camp Bastion, the main British base in Helmand, praised the crews, adding: "The Merlins will undergo an extensive programme of maintenance and cleaning before being packed up, ensuring they return to the UK in good order."
  • (2) After four years of existence, many evaluations were able to show the qualities of this system regarding root canal penetration, cleaning and shaping.
  • (3) Other recommendations for immediate action included a review of the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the General Medical Council for doctors, with possible changes to their structures; the possible transfer of powers to launch criminal prosecutions for care scandals from the Health and Safety Executive to the Care Quality Council; and a new inspection regime, which would focus more closely on how clean, safe and caring hospitals were.
  • (4) I usually use them as a rag with which to clean the toilet but I didn’t have anything else to wear today because I’m so fat.” While this exchange will sound baffling to outsiders, to Brits it actually sounds like this: “You like my dress?
  • (5) From the treatment group 23 patients could be assessed: 2 had discontinued clean intermittent self-catheterization due to urethral hemorrhage, 2 died during the observation period and 1 was lost to followup.
  • (6) The corresponding hydrides, mono-n-butyltin hydride, di-n-butyltin hydride, tri-n-butyltin hydride, monophenyltin hydride, diphenyltin hydride triphenyltin hydride, are detected by electron-capture gas chromatography after clean-up by silica gel column chromatography.
  • (7) Gassmann, whose late father, Vittorio , was a critically acclaimed star of Italian cinema in its heyday in the 1960s, tweeted over the weekend with the hashtag #Romasonoio (I am Rome), calling on the city’s residents to be an example of civility and clean up their own little corners of Rome with pride.
  • (8) Will the rate of late (four to five years) wound infection after operations done in a clean-air enclosure be lower than that after procedures done in a "normal" operating-room environment using preoperative, operative, and postoperative antibiotics?
  • (9) While there has been almost no political reform during their terms of office, there have been several ambitious steps forward in terms of environmental policy: anti-desertification campaigns; tree planting; an environmental transparency law; adoption of carbon targets; eco-services compensation; eco accounting; caps on water; lower economic growth targets; the 12th Five-Year Plan; debate and increased monitoring of PM2.5 [fine particulate matter] and huge investments in eco-cities, "clean car" manufacturing, public transport, energy-saving devices and renewable technology.
  • (10) Several studies have found that pollution and climate change disproportionately affect the poor , which means boosting clean energy generation and cutting pollution could also simultaneously reduce global inequality .
  • (11) The Clean Air Act (CAA) Amendments of 1990 was signed into law by President Bush on November 15, 1990.
  • (12) She followed that with a job at Bibendum – she still talks of Simon Hopkinson, "such an elegant cook, so particular and clean and efficient", with deep reverence – and another at Roscoff in Northern Ireland.
  • (13) Data support the use of clean intermittent catheterization under the conditions used in this study, including the use of a sterile catheter each day and careful monitoring of infection and technique.
  • (14) During this period, the microbial flora of the isolator was unchanged, and the time required to clean the cages was reduced by 50%.
  • (15) Rayburn, who was also told by his jobcentre he would lose his benefits if he did not work without pay, said he spent almost two months stacking and cleaning shelves and sometimes doing night shifts.
  • (16) Although a clean step response or the ensemble average of several responses contaminated with noise is needed for the generation of the filter, random noise of magnitude less than or equal to 0.5% added to the response to be corrected does not impair the correction severely.
  • (17) Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for UNEP, said the latest findings should encourage more governments to follow moves by some politicians to invest billions of dollars in clean energy and efficiency as a way of curbing greenhouse gases.
  • (18) And that is why we have taken bold action at home – by making historic investments in renewable energy; by putting our people to work increasing efficiency in our homes and buildings; and by pursuing comprehensive legislation to transform to a clean energy economy.
  • (19) A government-commissioned review into the RET, headed by the businessman and climate change sceptic Dick Warburton, concluded that while it has largely achieved its aims and helped create jobs in clean energy, it should be either wound back or cut off entirely.
  • (20) The studies allow the interpretation that retention of food in the diverticula is not the reason for the bacterial miscolonization of the duodenum and the biliary tract, but in patients with diverticula a disturbed self-cleaning mechanism is present.

Sheer


Definition:

  • (v. i.) Bright; clear; pure; unmixed.
  • (v. i.) Very thin or transparent; -- applied to fabrics; as, sheer muslin.
  • (v. i.) Being only what it seems to be; obvious; simple; mere; downright; as, sheer folly; sheer nonsense.
  • (v. i.) Stright up and down; vertical; prpendicular.
  • (adv.) Clean; quite; at once.
  • (v. t.) To shear.
  • (v. i.) 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.
  • (n.) The longitudinal upward curvature of the deck, gunwale, and lines of a vessel, as when viewed from the side.
  • (n.) The position of a vessel riding at single anchor and swinging clear of it.
  • (n.) A turn or change in a course.
  • (n.) Shears See Shear.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Problems associated with school-based clinics include vehement opposition to sex education, financing, and the sheer magnitude of the adolescents' health needs.
  • (2) They argue that the US, the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases per capita (China recently surpassed us in sheer volume), needs to lead the fight to limit carbon emissions, rather continuing to block global treaties as it has done in the past.
  • (3) But with the advantages and attractions that Scotland already has, and, more importantly, taking into account the morale boost, the sheer energisation of a whole people that would come about because we would finally have our destiny at least largely back in our own hands again – I think we could do it.
  • (4) Obviously, the sheer number of lasers being used both clinically and experimentally indicates a great potential for further advancement and refinement in technique and surgical outcomes.
  • (5) I was amazed by the sheer scale of the operation, easily mistaken for a full military assault on a kraken.
  • (6) We can inhabit only one version of being human – the only version that survives today – but what is fascinating is that palaeoanthropology shows us those other paths to becoming human, their successes and their eventual demise, whether through failure or just sheer bad luck.
  • (7) The report, extracts of which were published by the investigative news website Exaro , is said to include “devastating detail” of the corporation’s “sheer scale of awareness” of the late star’s activities.
  • (8) There is a policy review process, a manifesto and the small matter of winning another election between here and catastrophe, but the sheer barbarism of the outlined idea is breathtaking.
  • (9) Back in the 1970s, a severe economic crisis revealed the sheer unsustainability of government policies.
  • (10) So we started asking them ridiculous questions about being single," says Lucas, "and the sheer number of misunderstandings about each other's lives felt like comedic material."
  • (11) He skirted round the issue of historic responsibility for the misery but referred to the sheer scale of the sacrifice, pointing out that, among more than 14,000 parishes in the whole of England and Wales, only about 50 so-called "thankful parishes" saw all their soldiers return.
  • (12) But all that has changed since I discovered the sheer joy of hunting down items with “reduced” stickers at my local Waitrose.
  • (13) TUC general secretary Brendan Barber welcomed the letters, which argue against the Conservative party's position that the sheer scale of the UK deficit means public spending must be cut immediately.
  • (14) This year though, the annual fest of tit tape, weepy self-congratulation and sheer star power will be remembered for more than a frock faux pas: there was a serious cock-up .
  • (15) Brown, from Sheerness in Kent, who was to earn £15,000 a year from the role, has apologised for causing offence with the messages she posted between the ages of 14 and 16.
  • (16) I hope that people feel inspired enough, maybe in the sheer face of loss, to just do what they should be doing in life.
  • (17) David Winnick, the MP for Walsall North, said: "None of [May's] excuses can explain away the sheer incompetence and shambles that have occurred on her watch."
  • (18) Through combination with a spherical disc face perpendicular to the axis of rotation, which protrudes only slightly from the hemispherical catheter tip, with a maximum at the center and minimum at the lateral borders, the lathing head has only a slight risk of perforation and no undesired sheering forces (Figures 2a to 2d).
  • (19) Redwoods are taller, but giant sequoias win for sheer mass: the General Sherman's trunk has a volume of 1,487 cubic metres and is estimated to weigh over 2,000 tonnes.
  • (20) "Some of you may have heard we have a new judge this year," said Forsyth, summoning his finest brow-raise and hauling the audience at least temporarily on side by sheer force of showbiz will.