2. shear to remove by or as if by cutting or clipping: to shear wool from sheep.
3. shear to cut or clip the hair, fleece, wool, etc., from: to shear sheep.
4. shear to strip or deprive (usu. fol. by of): to shear someone of power.
5. shear to travel through by or as if by cutting: Chimney swifts sheared the air.
6. shear to subject (a solid body or structure) to shear.
7. (v.i.)shear to cut or cut through something with a sharp instrument.
8. shear to break along an internal plane in response to a force parallel to the plane.
9. shear Chiefly Scot. to reap crops with a sickle.
10. (n.)shear Usu., shears. (sometimes used with a sing. v.)
11. shear scissors of large size (usu. used with pair of).
12. shear any of various other cutting implements or machines having two blades that suggest those of scissors.
13. shear one blade of a pair of large scissors.
14. shear the act or process of shearing or being sheared.
15. shear a shearing of sheep (used in stating the age of sheep): a sheep of one shear.
16. shear the quantity, esp. of wool or fleece, cut off at one shearing.
17. shear Usu., shears. (usu. with a pl. v.) a framework for hoisting heavy weights, consisting of two or more spars with their legs separated, fastened together near the top and steadied by guys, which support a tackle.
18. shear a machine for cutting rigid material by moving the edge of a blade through it.
19. shear the tendency of a force applied to a solid body or structure, as a rock stratum, to cause deformation or rupture along a plane parallel to the force.
Etymology: (bef. 900; (v.) ME sheren, OE sceran, c. OFris
Definition of 'shear'
Princeton's WordNet
1. (noun)shear (physics) a deformation of an object in which parallel planes remain parallel but are shifted in a direction parallel to themselves "the shear changed the quadrilateral into a parallelogram"
2. (verb)shear a large edge tool that cuts sheet metal by passing a blade through it
1. (verb)shear to cut, clip, or sever anything from with shears or a like instrument; as, to shear sheep; to shear cloth
2. (verb)shear to separate or sever with shears or a similar instrument; to cut off; to clip (something) from a surface; as, to shear a fleece
3. (verb)shear to reap, as grain
4. (verb)shear fig.: To deprive of property; to fleece
5. (verb)shear to produce a change of shape in by a shear. See Shear, n., 4
6. (verb)shear a pair of shears; -- now always used in the plural, but formerly also in the singular. See Shears
7. (verb)shear a shearing; -- used in designating the age of sheep
8. (verb)shear an action, resulting from applied forces, which tends to cause two contiguous parts of a body to slide relatively to each other in a direction parallel to their plane of contact; -- also called shearing stress, and tangential stress
9. (verb)shear a strain, or change of shape, of an elastic body, consisting of an extension in one direction, an equal compression in a perpendicular direction, with an unchanged magnitude in the third direction
10. (verb)shear to deviate. See Sheer
11. (verb)shear to become more or less completely divided, as a body under the action of forces, by the sliding of two contiguous parts relatively to each other in a direction parallel to their plane of contact
Definitions of shear 
Afrikaans: skeer
Arabic: يَجُز الصّوف
Bulgarian: стрижа
Brazilian: tosquiar
Czech: stříhat
German: scheren
Danish: klippe
Greek: κουρεύω το μαλλί των προβ
Spanish: esquilar
Estonian: pügama
Farsi: چيدن پشم گوسفند
Finnish: keritä
French: tondre
Hebrew: לִגזוֹז
Hindi: कतरना
Croatian: šišati, strići
Hungarian: (meg)nyír
Indonesian: mencukur
Icelandic: rÿja
Italian: tosare
Japanese: 刈る
Korean: 털을 깎다
Lithuanian: kirpti
Latvian: cirpt
Malay: mengetam bulu
Dutch: scheren
Norwegian: klippe
Polish: strzyc
Persian: چيدن پشم گوسفند
Pashto: سكولل، كټيل: غوڅول، پرې ك
Portuguese: tosquiar
Romanian: a tunde
Russian: стричь
Slovak: strihať
Slovenian: striči
Serbian: ostrići
Swedish: klippa
Thai: ตัดขน
Turkish: kırkmak
Taiwanese: 剪羊毛
Ukrainian: стригти (овець)
Urdu: بھیڑوں وغیرہ کو مونڈنا
Vietnamese: cắt lông cừu
Chinese: 剪羊毛
