GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English
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Found 3 definitions
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Shear (shēr), v. t. [imp. Sheared (?) or Shore ();p. p. Sheared or Shorn (); p. pr. & vb. n. Shearing.] [OE. sheren, scheren, to shear, cut, shave, AS. sceran, scieran, scyran; akin to D. & G. scheren, Icel. skera, Dan. skire, Gr. . Cf. Jeer, Score, Shard, Share, Sheer to turn aside.]
1. To cut, clip, or sever anything from with shears or a like instrument; as, “to shear sheep; to shear cloth”.
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☞ It is especially applied to the cutting of wool from sheep or their skins, and the nap from cloth.
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2. To separate or sever with shears or a similar instrument; to cut off; to clip (something) from a surface; as, “to shear a fleece”.
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Before the golden tresses . . . were shorn away. Shak.
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3. To reap, as grain. [Scot.] Jamieson.
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4. Fig.: To deprive of property; to fleece.
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5. (Mech.) To produce a change of shape in by a shear. See Shear, n., 4.
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Shear, n. [AS. sceara. See Shear, v. t.]
1. A pair of shears; -- now always used in the plural, but formerly also in the singular. See Shears.
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On his head came razor none, nor shear. Chaucer.
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Short of the wool, and naked from the shear. Dryden.
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2. A shearing; -- used in designating the age of sheep.
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After the second shearing, he is a two-shear ram; . . . at the expiration of another year, he is a three-shear ram; the name always taking its date from the time of shearing. Youatt.
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3. (Engin.) An action, resulting from applied forces, which tends to cause two contiguous parts of a body to slide relatively to each other in a direction parallel to their plane of contact; -- also called shearing stress, and tangential stress.
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4. (Mech.) A strain, or change of shape, of an elastic body, consisting of an extension in one direction, an equal compression in a perpendicular direction, with an unchanged magnitude in the third direction.
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Shear blade, one of the blades of shears or a shearing machine. -- Shear hulk. See under Hulk. -- Shear steel, a steel suitable for shears, scythes, and other cutting instruments, prepared from fagots of blistered steel by repeated heating, rolling, and tilting, to increase its malleability and fineness of texture.
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Shear, v. i.
1. To deviate. See Sheer.
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2. (Engin.) To become more or less completely divided, as a body under the action of forces, by the sliding of two contiguous parts relatively to each other in a direction parallel to their plane of contact.
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