gear
Pluralgears (some meanings)
Pluralgears (some meanings)
- 1Equipment or other items, especially the kind used for a sport or other physical activity.
The hikers checked their gear before setting out on the trail.
Divers rinse their gear in fresh water after each session.
UsageOften after an activity word: camping gear, climbing gear. Say a lot of gear (not
incorrect: gears).Similarequipment, kit, tackle, stuff, paraphernalia
Note
Behind this sense is the oldest idea in the word: Middle English gere, from Old Norse gervi and a Germanic verb meaning "to prepare". Gear is what you have made ready, such as the kit packed before a hike or a dive.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Gear comes from Middle English gere, borrowed from Old Norse gervi. en.wiktionary.org
- The underlying Germanic verb meant 'to prepare', supporting the connection with readiness. en.wiktionary.org
- 2A toothed wheel, segment, or bar whose teeth interlock with another's to transmit motion from one to the other.
Each gear in the clock meshes with the next to keep accurate time.
When one gear wears down, the whole mechanism can jam.
UsageGears mesh with each other. The compound is written gear wheel or gearwheel.
Note
Its near-synonyms cog, cogwheel and gearwheel stress the wheel shape, while gear also covers a toothed segment or a straight toothed bar.
- 3To design or adapt something so as to be suitable for a particular type of person or purpose.
The company decided to gear its products to first-time buyers.
Teachers often gear their explanations to the level of the class.
UsageMost often passive: geared to beginners, geared toward families. Geared at also appears.
- 4A particular choice of interlocking gears producing a specific gear ratio, often selected with a shifter.
He dropped into a lower gear to keep control on the descent.
Cyclists pick a higher gear to gain speed on flat roads.
UsageYou are in a gear and change or shift into another: in third gear, shift into a lower gear.
Note
The word has moved from the toothed part to the ratio that part produces. Cyclists and motorists share the whole vocabulary, and the shifter is what makes the choice.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Gear developed from denoting a toothed mechanical part to denoting a transmission ratio or configuration. en.wikipedia.org
- A shifter selects the gear configuration. en.wiktionary.org
- 5Clothing or garments, especially considered as a set or particular style.
The band walked on stage in matching gear.
He turned up at the party in full punk gear: ripped jeans, studs, and a leather jacket.
UsageOften after in: in matching gear, in full punk gear.
Similarclothes, clothing, garb, attire, outfit
Note
Clothing is one of the word's oldest uses, and it has never quite died. Spenser could write "Aray thy selfe in her most gorgeous geare" in The Faerie Queene (1590), and four centuries later Tom Lehrer sings of packing his for an annual trip to Santa Monica.
- 6Short for landing gear: the wheels or other supports under an aircraft, used for takeoff and landing.
The crew confirmed the gear was down and locked.
The pilot lowered the gear as the plane approached the runway.
Note
A pilot's clipped form of landing gear, the wheels, brakes and shock absorbers an aircraft stands on. It turns up in tight, practical phrases: the gear goes down and locks before landing, and a gear-up landing is one made with the wheels still retracted. The full term also names the stand under a truck trailer, but the short form belongs to aviation.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- In aviation, gear is an elliptical form of landing gear. en.wiktionary.org
- Wheeled aircraft landing gear includes wheels, brakes and shock absorbers. rosap.ntl.bts.gov
- Landing gear supports an aircraft on the ground. en.wikipedia.org
- Retractable landing gear is lowered and checked for locking before landing. aopa.org
- A gear-up landing is made with the landing gear retracted. canada.ca
- Landing gear also names the supports beneath an uncoupled semitrailer. en.wikipedia.org
- 7One's belongings or possessions considered together.
The traveler's gear lay scattered across the inn floor.
When he moved out, he loaded all his gear, from books to dishes, into the van.
Note
The broadest and vaguest of the old senses: gear as simply stuff, any belongings at all, with no idea of fitness or purpose.
Less common meanings
- 8To fit something with gears, or with a set of gears chosen to achieve a desired gear ratio.
Engineers geared the tractor for pulling power rather than speed.
Builders gear the windmill so its slow rotation drives a fast pump.
UsageOften as geared for speed or geared for power.
Note
The engineer's transitive verb: someone gears a machine by choosing the wheels that set its ratio.
- 9To engage with a machine's moving parts, the teeth meshing so that motion or power is transmitted.
If the pinion doesn't gear properly with the main wheel, the whole machine starts to grind and shudder.
When you turn the key, the starter's small pinion gears into the flywheel and cranks the engine.
UsageOne part gears with or gears into another: the pinion gears into the flywheel.
Similarmesh, engage, interlock
Oppositedisengage
Note
Here the parts themselves act: wheels gear, or gear together, when their teeth come into mesh. It describes engagement happening in the moment, not the design choice behind it, and it is the verbal counterpart of the phrase in gear.
- 10To dress someone, or to put equipment or a harness on a person or animal.
The staff geared each rider up with a helmet and vest before the trail ride.
She has to gear the dog up in its harness before every long hike.
UsageUsually gear up: gear someone up with a helmet, or in a harness.
Similarequip, harness, dress, outfit, arm
Oppositeunharness
- 11Recreational drugs taken for pleasure or performance, steroids included.
Half the lifters at that gym were rumored to be on gear.
Dealers moved their gear quietly through the back rooms of the club.
UsageOften in on gear, meaning using drugs. In formal writing, name the drug instead.
Similardrugs, steroids, dope, juice
Note
In Marianne Hancock's Looking for Oliver (2003), a character asks "Have you got any gear?" and means acid.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Marianne Hancock wrote Looking for Oliver. hachette.co.uk
- A character asks the exact question quoted, referring to acid. en.wiktionary.org
- 12To take on debt specifically in order to fund the purchase of investment assets.
Property funds often gear to amplify their potential returns.
The firm geared aggressively just before the market downturn.
Oppositedeleverage
Note
A finance verb built on the mechanical image: borrowed money works like a low gear, letting a small stake move a larger mass of assets. Investors and funds gear to amplify their returns, and the same move amplifies their losses relative to their own money. The verb means borrowing specifically to buy assets, not taking on debt in general.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- The analogy describes mechanical advantage: gearing allows a smaller input force to produce greater output torque. en.wikipedia.org
- Borrowing to invest magnifies gains and losses relative to investors' equity. en.wikipedia.org
- 13Matters of business; the affairs and concerns one is occupied with.
goe they both together to their geare.
1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie QueeneNote
A lost abstract use: gear as the business in hand. When Spenser writes in The Faerie Queene (1596) that "goe they both together to their geare", he means the pair set about their work.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Gear historically meant business or affairs. en.wiktionary.org
- Spenser wrote the quoted words in The Faerie Queene, Book V, Canto VIII. en.wikisource.org
- The part containing this quotation was first published in 1596. en.wikisource.org
- The quotation means that the pair begin their business or activity, here fighting. en.wiktionary.org
- 14Anything worthless: nonsense, foolishness, or useless trash.
Note
A scornful dialect use, now obsolete, in which gear means a matter or thing one thinks little of. Hugh Latimer, preaching before King Edward in 1549, speaks of the servant "that confessed and uttered this gear". There, this gear is the whole sorry business. The sense belongs to old British dialect, not to modern slang.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- Gear had a disparaging British dialect sense referring to worthless things or nonsense. en.wiktionary.org
- Hugh Latimer preached the sermon containing the quotation before King Edward in 1549. ccel.org
- Latimer used the exact quoted words about a servant. ccel.org
- This gear refers to the discreditable business the servant disclosed. ccel.org
- The sense is historically associated with British dialect. en.wiktionary.org
- 15Great or fantastic; a word of strong praise heard chiefly in Liverpool.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Proto-Germanic *garwijaną ("to prepare") produced Old Norse gervi, which Middle English borrowed as gere. The same root, by way of Old English, also gave the adjective yare.