Shear

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ʃɪə(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
• US IPA: /ʃiɹ/
• Rhymes: -iɹ
• Homophones: sheer

Origin

From Middle English sheren, from Old English scieran, from Proto-Germanic *skeraną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- ("to cut"). Cognate with West Frisian skeare, Low German scheren, Dutch scheren, German scheren, Danish skære, Norwegian skjære, Swedish skära, Serbo-Croatian škare ("scissors"); and from Indo-European with Ancient Greek κείρω (keirō, "I cut off"), Latin caro ("flesh"), Albanian harr ("to cut, to mow"), Lithuanian skìrti ("separate"), Welsh ysgar ("separate"). See also sharp.

Full definition of shear

Verb

1. To cut, originally with a sword or other bladed weapon, now usually with shears, or as if using shears.
• 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe:So trenchant was the Templar’s weapon, that it shore asunder, as it had been a willow twig, the tough and plaited handle of the mace, which the ill-fated Saxon reared to parry the blow, and, descending on his head, levelled him with the earth.
• Shakespearethe golden tresses ... were shorn away
2. To remove the fleece from a sheep etc by clipping.
3. (physics) To deform because of shearing forces.
4. (Scotland) To reap, as grain.
5. (figurative) To deprive of property; to fleece.

Noun

1. a cutting tool similar to scissors, but often larger
• Drydenshort of the wool, and naked from the shear
2. the act of shearing, or something removed by shearing
• YouattAfter 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.
3. (physics) a force that produces a shearing strain
4. (geology) The response of a rock to deformation usually by compressive stress, resulting in particular textures.

Derived terms

• megashear
• shearer

Adjective

1. Misspelling of sheer

Anagrams

• Asher, asher, earsh, hares, harse, hears, rheas, share