sheer off
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This town, strung out on an east-west peninsula, clings to a hillside that looks like it might sheer off during batten-the-hatches weather, which in fact is the forecast for about nine months every year.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 14, 2017
It compared itself to the buoy that “warns the inexperienced mariner to sheer off, lest he should be wrecked on a dangerous and unknown coast.”
From New York Times • Jan. 26, 2011
By sea law, the ship on the starboard tack having the right of way, the We're Here should sheer off, but Disko holds his course.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Perhaps the shadow intended to sheer off when he got close.
From The Wailing Octopus by Goodwin, Harold L. (Harold Leland)
On the repulse of the second attempt to board, the privateer's grappling-rope was cut and she tried to sheer off; but this Pascoe prevented by lashing her square sail-yard to the fore-shrouds of the packet.
From The History of the Post Office From Its Establishment Down to 1836 by Joyce, Herbert