shear

From Middle English sheren, scheren, from Old English sċieran, from Proto-Germanic *skeraną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”). Cognate with West Frisian skeare, Low German scheren, Dutch scheren, German scheren, Danish skære, Norwegian Bokmål skjære, Norwegian Nynorsk skjera, Swedish skära, Serbo-Croatian škare ("scissors"); and (from Indo-European) with Ancient Greek κείρω (keírō, “I cut off”), Latin caro (“flesh”), Albanian shqerr (“to tear, cut”), harr (“to cut, to mow”), Lithuanian skìrti (“separate”), Welsh ysgar (“separate”). See also sharp.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ʃɪə(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
• (US) IPA^(key): /ʃiɹ/
• Rhymes: -iɹ
• (near-square merger) IPA^(key): /ʃɛə/
• Rhymes: -ɛː(ɹ)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: sheer

shear (third-person singular simple present shears, present participle shearing, simple past sheared or shore, past participle shorn or sheared)

1. To cut, originally with a sword or other bladed weapon, now usually with shears, or as if using shears.
   • 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe:

     So trenchant was the Templar’s weapon, that it shore asunder, as it had been a willow twig, the tough and plaited handle of the mace, which the ill-fated Saxon reared to parry the blow, and, descending on his head, levelled him with the earth.

   • Shakespeare

     the golden tresses […] were shorn away

2. To remove the fleece from a sheep etc by clipping.
3. (physics) To deform because of forces pushing in opposite directions.
4. (Scotland) To reap, as grain.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Jamieson to this entry?)

5. (figuratively) To deprive of property; to fleece.

shear (countable and uncountable, plural shears)

1. A cutting tool similar to scissors, but often larger.
   • Dryden

     short of the wool, and naked from the shear

2. The act of shearing, or something removed by shearing.
   • Youatt

     After the second shearing, he is a two-shear ram; […] at the expiration of another year, he is a three-shear ram; the name always taking its date from the time of shearing.

3. (physics) Forces that push in opposite directions.
4. (geology) The response of a rock to deformation usually by compressive stress, resulting in particular textures.

• megashear
• shearer
• wind shear

shear

1. Misspelling of sheer.

• Asher, Rahes, Share, asher, earsh, hares, harse, hears, rheas, sehar, sehra, share