shear

SaySHEER/ʃɪɹ/UK/ʃɪə(ɹ)/

Noun pluralshears

18 meanings of shear

1
verbtransitive or intransitive
To cut the wool or fleece off a sheep or similar animal.
Like giving a sheep a haircut to take off its thick coat.
Farmers shear their sheep in early summer.
She can shear all day without getting tired.
Similarfleece
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2
nouncountable or uncountable
A cutting tool like big scissors, used to cut things such as metal or cloth.
Like a giant pair of scissors strong enough to cut metal.
The worker fed the sheet of metal into the shear.
He bought a heavy shear to cut through the thick wire.
Similarshears
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3
verbtransitive
To cut off someone's hair, often all of it.
Like a haircut, but cutting it all off close to the head.
The barber sheared the new recruits before training began.
They shear the monks' hair as part of the ceremony.
Similarcrop, shave, clip, cut
4
verbtransitive or intransitive
To cut through something with a blade or sharp edge.
Like slicing through something in one clean cut.
The sword sheared through the rope in one swing.
A sharp blade can shear cleanly through thick cloth.
Similarcut, slice, sever, cleave
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5
verbintransitive
To suddenly break or snap off because of too much force.
Like snapping a dry twig that bends too far.
The bolt sheared off when they tightened it too hard.
Old metal pins can shear under heavy loads.
Similarsnap, break, fail, fracture
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6
nouncountable or uncountable
A pushing force where two parts are pushed in opposite directions.
Like pushing the top of a deck of cards one way and the bottom the other way.
The strong wind put a lot of shear on the bridge.
Too much shear can twist and break a metal beam.
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7
verbintransitive
To bend or change shape when pushed in two opposite directions.
Like a stack of paper sliding sideways when you push the top and bottom in different directions.
The soft clay began to shear under the twisting pressure.
Layers of rock can shear when the ground shifts.
Similardeform
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8
noununcountable
A sudden change in wind speed or direction over a short distance.
Like stepping around a building corner into a strong wind that wasn't there a moment before.
The control tower warned pilots of dangerous shear near the runway.
Sudden shear at low altitude can push an aircraft off its glide path.
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9
nouncountable or uncountable
The job of cutting off a sheep's wool, or the wool that is cut off.
Like the pile of hair left on the floor after a haircut.
This year's shear produced more wool than last.
The whole shear took less than two minutes per sheep.
Similarclip
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10
nouncountable
A single time when the wind suddenly changes its speed or direction over a short distance.
Like a sudden gust that shoves you to one side when you walk around a corner.
A sudden shear tossed the small plane sideways during its descent.
Forecasters warned of strong shears near the mountain pass that afternoon.
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11
nouncountable or uncountable
A big powered machine that cuts flat pieces of metal.
Like a giant pair of scissors built to cut metal instead of paper.
The factory's shear sliced through the steel plate in one pass.
Workers fed the long metal sheet into the shear.
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12
verbfigurativelytransitive
To take all of someone's money or things, often by cheating.
Like a sheep losing all its wool, except here a person loses all their money.
Con artists sheared the elderly couple of their savings.
Greedy partners can shear you of everything you own if you trust them blindly.
Similarfleece, swindle, cheat, rob
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13
verbintransitive
Of wind, to suddenly change its speed or direction.
Like a river suddenly speeding up and twisting when it narrows.
The wind sheared sharply as the storm front passed.
Strong gusts can shear without warning near tall buildings.
Similarveer, shift
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14
nouncountable or uncountable
The way rock changes shape and texture when strong forces squeeze it.
Like a deck of cards sliding into a slanted stack when you push the top.
Geologists studied the shear visible in the cliff's banded rock.
Intense shear had folded the layers into tight waves.
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15
verbtransitive
To slant a shape by sliding its parts sideways, moving the parts farther from a fixed line by more.
Like pushing the top of a stack of books sideways while the bottom stays put.
You can shear a square into a slanted parallelogram.
The software sheared the image to make it look tilted.
Similarskew
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16
nouncountable or uncountable
A way of slanting a shape by sliding its parts sideways based on how far they are from a line.
Like the slanted shape a stack of paper makes when you nudge the top to one side.
A simple shear turns a square into a leaning parallelogram.
The graphics tool applies a shear to tilt the text.
Similarskew
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17
verbintransitive
To make a straight downward cut into a coal seam during mining.
Like scoring a deep line in a bar of soap before snapping a piece off.
Miners would shear along the base of the seam before blasting.
The cutting machine sheared deep into the coal face.
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18
verbdialectalScotlandtransitive
To cut and gather grain crops at harvest time.
Like cutting tall grass with a blade and gathering it up.
Farmers shear the wheat once the ears turn golden.
They sheared the barley before the fall rains arrived.
Similarreap, harvest, cut, mow
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Practice

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Origin

From Old English sċieran, meaning "to shear or shave," which goes back to an ancient root meaning "to cut."