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
During the whole engagement, he withstood the united attacks of both the frigates, each of them with equal force to his own, and at last obliged them to sheer off, greatly damaged.
From The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism. Volume 1 by Whymper, Frederick
If he did not want to fight, he had only to sheer off and run for it; no Indiaman would initiate an action, or give chase, under such circumstances.
From Privateers and Privateering by Statham, E. P.
