scissor
Verbscissors, scissoring, scissored
Noun pluralscissors
Formsscissors, scissoring, scissored
Pluralscissors
- 1To cut something using scissors, or in a manner resembling the action of scissors.
The tailor scissored the cloth into precise panels.
Children learn to scissor paper into simple shapes.
Note
The cutting verb is old: Fletcher and Shakespeare's The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613–1614) spells it Cizard. Modern writers like it with a result particle. In Paul Theroux's Millroy the Magician (1993), Millroy "scissored open his pants leg." Its past participle also works well as an adjective, as in the "scissored snippings from gossip columns" of Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958).
- 2Used before another noun to name a thing whose action resembles the opening and closing of scissors, as in scissor kick or scissor jack.
The gymnast finished her routine with a clean scissor jump.
He trapped his opponent in a tight scissor hold.
Note
A modifier of likeness rather than of the tool. A scissor kick involves no blades. A scissor hold in wrestling traps an opponent between crossing limbs, and a scissor jack lifts on crossed arms that close together. Compare the plain attributive use, where a scissor handle really belongs to scissors. If the thing named only moves like scissors, it belongs to this sense.
- 3Attributive form of scissors.
He oiled the scissor joint so the blades moved smoothly.
A worn scissor handle can cause blisters during long cutting sessions.
Note
Here the plural noun scissors drops its -s to modify another noun: scissor holes, scissor-making, a scissor-type tool. Scissors itself is usually plural-only, so this bare stem is the shape it takes in front of a noun. Trade and process words often take a hyphen (scissor-makers, scissor-making), while simple descriptive pairs such as the scissor hole are written open.
- 4To move something back and forth like the blades of a pair of scissors, especially the legs.
The dancer scissored her legs in a sharp, controlled motion.
Two skaters scissor across the ice in perfect unison.
Similarcrisscross, swing
Note
This motion verb works with or without an object. A runner scissors over hurdles, and Raymond Chandler's figure lies with "long legs scissored out as if in running." Legs are the usual subject, but they are not the only one. In Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), jaws go "scissoring mechanically" on sweet potatoes, which shows that any paired, crossing movement qualifies.
- 5Of two women, to have sex by interlocking their legs and rubbing their vulvas together; to practice tribadism.
The couple scissored after a long evening together.
Some women scissor as a way to reach orgasm without penetration.
Note
This sexual term names the act by its posture, the same crossing-legs image as the leg-crossing motion. Tribadism is the more technical name. The verb is intransitive (two women scissor, with no object), and it often appears as the gerund, as in engaging in scissoring. Because the cutting and motion senses are so common, context should make this sense unmistakable before it is used.
- 6A cutting instrument with two pivoted blades, used to cut paper, cloth, hair, and similar materials.
The barber reached for his scissor and trimmed the edges.
Keep the scissor out of the toddler's reach.
Similarshears
Note
In Indian English the singular names the whole tool, so speakers say a scissor or the scissor where other varieties say scissors or a pair of scissors. It is worth keeping apart from the rare single-blade sense. In Indian use a scissor cuts on its own, but elsewhere a lone scissor is usually just half the instrument. For an international readership, the plural is the safer choice.
- 7To cut out or delete a portion of a text, removing it entirely.
Censors scissored several passages from the manuscript before publication.
The board wants to scissor the controversial clause from the report.
Similarcut, delete, excise, remove, strike
Note
The censor's verb usually appears in the passive with out or from. In Lionel Shapiro's The Sixth of June (1955), a line and a half "had been scissored out by the censor," and William Gass recalls a Chaucer with lines scissored out. Do not confuse it with the obsolete "copy out" meaning, which lifted text in order to reprint it rather than to remove it.
- 8To skate with one foot held significantly ahead of the other, often for balance or control.
The hockey player scissored across the blue line to gain speed.
Learn to scissor before attempting sharper turns.
Note
On the ice the image is a stance, not a snipping motion: the feet are split front and back instead of side by side. The plural noun scissors names the same skating technique, so the verb and the noun travel together in coaching talk. It differs from the general leg-crossing verb because the position is held while gliding, not swung back and forth.
Less common meanings
- 9A single blade of a pair of scissors, considered separately from its matching counterpart.
The left scissor had bent slightly out of alignment.
A loose rivet let one scissor wobble against the other.
Similarblade
Note
A rare singular that takes one blade out of the pair. The singular has deep roots: Middle English cysour was reshaped from sisours, the name for the whole tool. That came through Old French cisoires from Latin caedere, "to cut". The sc- spelling arrived later, under the influence of Latin scindere, scissus, "to split". In most writing, one blade of the scissors is the clearer choice.
- 10To reproduce a piece of text as an excerpt or copy, lifting it from another source.
The weekly gazette scissored half its news from the city dailies.
Lazy compilers scissor whole passages without crediting the author.
Note
This was a compiler's verb from the nineteenth century: to scissor a passage was to take it from elsewhere and reproduce it. The New-England Magazine uses it in 1832, in a review of an etymological encyclopedia, and it turns up again in an 1881 advertisement for Pattison's Missouri Digest. Today readers would hear only the cutting-out meaning, so excerpt or copy is the word to use.
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Practice
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Origin
The word comes from Middle English cysour, altered from sisours ('scissors'), from Old French cisoires, from Latin caedere ('to cut'). The current spelling was influenced by Latin scindere, scissus ('to split').