dragnet vs sheer

dragnet

noun
  • A net dragged across the bottom of a body of water. 

  • Heightened efforts by law-enforcement personnel to capture suspects. 

verb
  • To make heightened efforts to catch a suspect. 

  • To drag a net across the bottom of a body of water. 

sheer

noun
  • An abrupt swerve from the course of a ship. 

  • A sheer curtain or fabric. 

  • The curve of the main deck or gunwale from bow to stern. 

verb
  • To swerve from a course. 

adj
  • Used to emphasize the amount or degree of something. 

  • Very steep; almost vertical or perpendicular. 

  • Downright; complete; pure. 

  • Very thin or transparent. 

How often have the words dragnet and sheer occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )