verb
- a past participle of shear.
verb (used with object), sheared, sheared or shorn, shear·ing.
- to cut (something).
- to remove by or as if by cutting or clipping with a sharp instrument: to shear wool from sheep.
- to cut or clip the hair, fleece, wool, etc., from: to shear sheep.
- to strip or deprive (usually followed by of): to shear someone of power.
- Chiefly Scot. to reap with a sickle.
- to travel through by or as if by cutting: Chimney swifts sheared the air.
verb (used without object), sheared, sheared or shorn, shear·ing.
- to cut or cut through something with a sharp instrument.
- to progress by or as if by cutting: The cruiser sheared through the water.
- Mechanics, Geology. to become fractured along a plane as a result of forces acting parallel to the plane.
- Chiefly Scot. to reap crops with a sickle.
noun
- Usually shears. (sometimes used with a singular verb)
- scissors of large size (usually used with pair of).
- any of various other cutting implements or machines having two blades that resemble or suggest those of scissors.
- the act or process of shearing or being sheared.
- a shearing of sheep (used in stating the age of sheep): a sheep of one shear.
- the quantity, especially of wool or fleece, cut off at one shearing.
- one blade of a pair of large scissors.
- Usually shears. (usually used with a plural verb) Also sheers. Also called shear legs, sheerlegs. a framework for hoisting heavy weights, consisting of two or more spars with their legs separated, fastened together near the top and steadied by guys, which support a tackle.
- a machine for cutting rigid material, as metal in sheet or plate form, by moving the edge of a blade through it.
- Mechanics, Geology. the tendency of forces to deform or fracture a member or a rock in a direction parallel to the force, as by sliding one section against another.
- Physics. the lateral deformation produced in a body by an external force, expressed as the ratio of the lateral displacement between two points lying in parallel planes to the vertical distance between the planes.
verb
- a past participle of shear
verb shears, shearing or sheared or Australian and NZ shore, sheared or shorn
- (tr) to remove (the fleece or hair) of (sheep, etc) by cutting or clipping
- to cut or cut through (something) with shears or a sharp instrument
- engineering to cause (a part, member, shaft, etc) to deform or fracture or (of a part, etc) to deform or fracture as a result of excess torsion or transverse load
- (tr often foll by of) to strip or divestto shear someone of his power
- (when intr, foll by through) to move through (something) by or as if by cutting
- Scot to reap (corn, etc) with a scythe or sickle
noun
- the act, process, or an instance of shearing
- a shearing of a sheep or flock of sheep, esp when referred to as an indication of agea sheep of two shears
- a form of deformation or fracture in which parallel planes in a body or assembly slide over one another
- physics the deformation of a body, part, etc, expressed as the lateral displacement between two points in parallel planes divided by the distance between the planes
- either one of the blades of a pair of shears, scissors, etc
- a machine that cuts sheet material by passing a knife blade through it
- a device for lifting heavy loads consisting of a tackle supported by a framework held steady by guy ropes
“shaven,” late Old English scoren, past participle adjective from shear (v.).
Old English sceran, scieran (class IV strong verb; past tense scear, past participle scoren) “to cleave, hew, cut with a sharp instrument; cut (hair); shear (sheep),” from Proto-Germanic *sker- “to cut” (cf. Old Norse and Old Frisian skera, Dutch scheren, German scheren “to shear”), from PIE *(s)ker- (1) “to cut, to scrape, to hack” (cf. Sanskrit krnati “hurts, wounds, kills,” krntati “cuts;” Hittite karsh- “to cut off;” Greek keirein “to cut, shear;” Latin curtus “short;” Lithuanian skiriu “to separate;” Old Irish scaraim “I separate;” Welsh ysgar “to separate,” ysgyr “fragment”).
“act of clipping,” 1610s, also as a unit of measure of the age of a sheep, from shear (v.). Scientific and mechanical sense “type of strain” is from 1850.
- A force, movement or pressure applied to an object perpendicular to a given axis, with greater value on one side of the axis than the other. See more at shear force stress strain.
- See skew.