Definitions for shear
ʃɪərshear

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. shearnoun

   (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. shearverb

   a large edge tool that cuts sheet metal by passing a blade through it

3. shearverb

   cut with shears

   "shear hedges"

4. fleece, shearverb

   shear the wool from

   "shear sheep"

5. shearverb

   cut or cut through with shears

   "shear the wool off the lamb"

6. shearverb

   become deformed by forces tending to produce a shearing strain

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. shearnoun

   a cutting tool similar to scissors, but often larger

2. shearnoun

   the act of shearing, or something removed by shearing

3. shearnoun

   a force that produces a shearing strain

4. shearverb

   To cut, originally with a sword or other bladed weapon, now usually with shears, or as if using shears.

5. shearverb

   To remove the fleece from a sheep etc by clipping

6. shearverb

   To deform because of shearing forces

7. Etymology: From scieran, from skeranan, from ker-. Cognate with Dutch scheren, German scheren, Norwegian skjære, Swedish skära; and (from Indo-European) with Ancient Greek κείρω, Latin caro, Albanian harr, Lithuanian skìrti, Welsh ysgar.

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. To Shear

   preter. shore, or sheared; part. pass. shorn.

   Etymology: scearan, scyren , Saxon.

   1. To clip or cut by interception between two blades moving on a rivet.

   So many days, my ews have been with young;
   So many weeks, e’re the poor fools will yean;
   So many months, e’re I shall sheer the fleece. William Shakespeare.

   I am shepherd to another man,
   And do not sheer the fleeces that I graze. William Shakespeare.

   Laban went to sheer his sheep. Gen. xxxi. 19.

   When wool is new shorn, they set pails of water by in the same room to increase its weight. Francis Bacon, Nat. Hist.

   To lay my head and hollow pledge
   Of all my strength, in the lascivious lap
   Of a deceitful concubine, who shore me,
   Like a tame weather, all my precious fleece. John Milton.

   The same ill taste of sense wou’d serve to join
   Dog foxes in the yoak, and sheer the swine. Dryden.

   May’st thou henceforth sweetly sleep,
   Sheer, swains, oh sheer your softest sheep
   To swell his couch. John Gay.

   O’er the congenial dust injoin’d to shear
   The graceful curl, and drop the tender tear. Alexander Pope.

   2. To cut.

   The sharp and toothed edge of the nether chap strikes into a canal cut into the bone of the upper; and the toothed protuberance of the upper into a canal in the nether: by which means he easily sheers the grass whereon he feeds. Nehemiah Grew.

2. Shear, Shearsnoun

   It is seldom used in the singular, but is found once in Dryden.

   Etymology: from the verb.

   1. An instrument to cut, consisting of two blades moving on a pin, between which the thing cut is intercepted. Shears are large, and scissars a smaller instrument of the same kind.

   Alas, thought Philoclea to herself, your sheers come too late to clip the bird’s wings that already is flown away. Philip Sidney.

   Why do you bend such solemn brows on me?
   Think you I bear the shears of destiny?
   Have I commandment on the pulse of life? William Shakespeare.

   The fates prepar’d their sharpen’d sheers. Dryd.

   When the fleece is shorn,
   Then their defenceless limbs the brambles tear;
   Short of their wool, and naked from the sheer. Dryden.

   That people live and die, I knew,
   An hour ago, as well as you;
   And if fate spins us longer years,
   Or is in haste to take the sheers,
   I know, we must both fortunes try,
   And bear our evils, wet or dry. Matthew Prior.

   How happy should we be if we had the privilege of employing the sheers for want of a mint, upon foreign gold, by clipping it into half crowns. Jonathan Swift.

   Fate urg’d the sheers and cut the sylph in twain,
   But airy substance soon unites again. Alexander Pope.

   Beneath the shears they felt no lasting smart,
   They lost but fleeces, while I lost a heart. John Gay.

   2. The denomination of the age of sheep.

   When sheep is one shear, they will have two broad teeth before; when two shear, four; when three, six; when four, eight: and after that, their mouths break. John Mortimer.

   3. Any thing in the form of the blades of sheers.4. Wings, in Edmund Spenser.

   Two sharp-wing’d sheers
   Deck’d with divers plumes, like painted jays,
   Were fix’d at his back to cut his airy ways. Edmund Spenser.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. shear

   Shear refers to the deformation or strain in a material's structure where adjacent layers slide past one another, like when a deck of cards is shifted. It is also a measure of force that is applied parallel or tangential to a surface. In terms of geology, shear refers to the lateral movement or displacement of rock layers along a fault line. Its application varies across different fields such as physics, engineering, geology, and biology.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Shearverb

   to cut, clip, or sever anything from with shears or a like instrument; as, to shear sheep; to shear cloth

2. Shearverb

   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. Shearverb

   to reap, as grain

4. Shearverb

   fig.: To deprive of property; to fleece

5. Shearverb

   to produce a change of shape in by a shear. See Shear, n., 4

6. Shearverb

   a pair of shears; -- now always used in the plural, but formerly also in the singular. See Shears

7. Shearverb

   a shearing; -- used in designating the age of sheep

8. Shearverb

   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. Shearverb

   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. Shearverb

    to deviate. See Sheer

11. Shearverb

    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

12. Etymology: [OE. sheren, scheren, to shear, cut, shave, AS. sceran, scieran, scyran; akin to D. & G. scheren, Icel. skera, Dan. skire, Gr. . Cf. Jeer, Score, Shard, Share, Sheer to turn aside.]

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Shear

   shēr, v.t. to cut or clip: to clip with shears or any other instrument: (Scot.) to reap with a sickle.—v.i. to separate, cut, penetrate: in mining, to make a vertical cut in the coal:—pa.t. sheared, (obs.) shore; pa.p. sheared or shorn.—n. a shearing or clipping: a strain where compression is answered by elongation at right angles: curve, deviation.—ns. Shear′-bill, the scissor-bill, cut-water, or black skimmer; Shear′er; Shear′-hog, a sheep after the first shearing; Shear′ing, the act or operation of cutting with shears: what is cut off with shears: (Scot.) the time of reaping: the process of preparing shear-steel: (geol.) the process by which shear-structure (q.v.) has been produced; Shear′ling, a sheep only once sheared; Shear′man, one whose occupation is to shear cloth; Shears (pl. and sing.), an instrument for shearing or cutting, consisting of two blades that meet each other: a hoisting apparatus (see Sheers): anything resembling shears, as even a pair of wings (Spens.); Shear′-steel, steel suitable for the manufacture of shears and other edge-tools; Shear′-struc′ture (geol.), a structure often seen in volcanic rocks, due to the reciprocal compression and elongation of various parts under great crust movements; Shear′-wa′ter, a genus of oceanic birds allied to the petrels, and varying from 8½ to 14 inches in length. [A.S. sceran; Ice. skera, to clip, Ger. scheren, to shave.]

Dictionary of Nautical TermsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. shear

   An iron spear, of three or more points, for catching eels.

Suggested ResourcesRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Shear

   Shear vs. Sheer -- In this Grammar.com article you will learn the differences between the words Shear and Sheer.

Surnames Frequency by Census RecordsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. SHEAR

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Shear is ranked #9669 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
   
   The Shear surname appeared 3,356 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 would have the surname Shear.
   
   93% or 3,122 total occurrences were White.
   2.3% or 78 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
   2.1% or 71 total occurrences were Black.
   1.4% or 47 total occurrences were of two or more races.
   0.8% or 28 total occurrences were Asian.
   0.3% or 10 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.

Matched Categories

1. • Change
   • Cut
   • Cut Back
   • Deformation
   • Physics
   • Shave

Anagrams for shear »

1. Asher

2. asher

3. earsh

4. hares

5. harse

6. hears

7. rheas

8. share

How to pronounce shear?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say shear in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of shear in Chaldean Numerology is: 7

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of shear in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of shear in a Sentence

1. Phil Klotzbach:

   Climatologically, what ends your hurricane season is too much wind shear, so La Niña tends to prolong the hurricane season since it tends to reduce shear, of course, last year is an example of La Niña prolonging the season... on steroids.

2. Phil Klotzbach:

   Vertical wind shear is extremely critical for hurricanes in the Atlantic, strong vertical wind shear, the change in wind direction with height, tears apart hurricanes and disrupts their intensification.

3. Matt Sena:

   A lot of that is going to depend on where the surface low moves and how far north the warm front gets, the primary threat is going to be damaging winds. There will be some threat for hail. There is enough shear, so we can't rule out the possibility of tornadoes, but the primary threat will be damaging winds.

4. Phil Klotzbach:

   The models are generally forecasting a more conducive pattern for the Atlantic by the time that we get to the middle of August, air is forecast to more consistently rise over Africa and sink over the tropical Pacific. This pattern should result in reduced vertical wind shear.

5. Chris Broyles:

   The tornadoes are being caused by supercell storms that are being driven by the strong wind shear.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=shear
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Shear
3. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=shear
4. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
5. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shear
6. ^ Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37683/37683-h/37683-h.htm#:~:text=shear
7. ^ Dictionary of Nautical Terms
   https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26000/pg26000-images.html#:~:text=shear
8. ^ Surnames Frequency by Census Records
   https://www.census.gov/topics/population/genealogy/data/2010_surnames.html