/ʃɪə(ɹ)/, /ʃɪɹ/, /ʃɛə/
OriginFrom Middle English sheren, scheren, from Old English sċieran (“to shear; to shave”), from Proto-West Germanic *skeran, from Proto-Germanic *skeraną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”).
Cognate with West Frisian skarre, Low German scheren, Dutch scheren, German scheren, Danish skære, Norwegian Bokmål skjære, Norwegian Nynorsk skjera, Swedish skära, Finnish keritä; and (from Indo-European) with Ancient Greek κείρω (keírō, “I cut off”), Latin caro (“flesh”), Albanian shqerr (“to tear, cut”), harr (“to cut, to mow”), Lithuanian ski̇̀rti (“separate”), Welsh ysgar (“separate”). See also sharp.
- intransitive, transitiveTo remove the fleece from (a sheep, llama, etc.) by clipping.
- To cut the hair of (a person).
“shear the afro off someone's head”
- To cut, originally with a sword or other bladed weapon, now usually with shears, or as if using shears.
“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, descendin”
“the golden tresses […] were shorn away”
- To deform because of forces pushing in opposite directions.
- intransitiveTo change in direction or speed.
“The total along-the-runway wind component sheared from an 8-knot headwind to about a 56-knot tailwind over a 44-second period.”
- To transform by displacing every point in a direction parallel to some given line by a distance proportional to the point’s distance from the line.
- intransitiveTo make a vertical cut in coal.
- (also 'shear off') To break or suddenly separate because of excessive force, eg. a bolt.
- ScotlandTo reap, as grain.
“Soon as the bending Scythe,
And Sickle keen, have shear'd the golden Grain,
Array'd in all the Equipage of Death,
Forth the stern Sportsman stalks”
- figurativelyTo deprive of property; to fleece.
- countable, uncountableA cutting tool similar to scissors, but often larger.
“short of their wool, and naked from the shear”
- countable, uncountableA large machine use for cutting sheet metal.
- countable, uncountableThe act of shearing, or something removed by shearing.
“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.”
- countable, uncountableForces that push in opposite directions.
- uncountableThe phenomenon of wind shear.
“The first effect of a wind shear was detected at 34 to 42 seconds into the takeoff, at a speed of about 115 KIAS with the airplane about 3,800 feet down the runway. An average shear rate of about 2.5 ”
- countableA specific instance of wind shear.
“We hit a nasty shear on approach and had to go around.”
- countable, uncountableA transformation that displaces every point in a direction parallel to some given line by a distance proportional to the point's distance from the line.
- countable, uncountableThe response of a rock to deformation usually by compressive stress, resulting in particular textures.
- alt-of, misspellingMisspelling of sheer.
- A surname.
“Real people in a picture that was used by a catfish to create a fake identity could have a claim because their likeness was used without permission, Shear said.”
Formsshears(present, singular, third-person) · shearing(participle, present) · sheared(past) · shore(past) · shorn(participle, past) · sheared(participle, past) · shears(plural) · Shears(plural)