shear
shears; shearing; sheared
A shear is a cutting implement that looks like a long pair of scissors. Also like scissors, this form of the noun is usually plural. You can cut metal, prune a tree, or cut up a chicken with shears.
In farming, when you remove wool from a sheep, goat, or even a llama, you shear the animal. Most farmers shear their sheep once a year, but the timing varies from farm to farm. The verb shear also means to cause to break off or come apart with a cutting force. The wind during a storm can blow hard enough to shear the tiles off a roof.
Definitions of shear
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cut or cut through with shears“shear the wool off the lamb”
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type of:
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cut
separate with or as if with an instrument
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cut
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cut with shears
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shear the wool from
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a large edge tool that cuts sheet metal by passing a blade through it
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type of:
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edge tool
any cutting tool with a sharp cutting edge (as a chisel or knife or plane or gouge)
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edge tool
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become deformed by forces tending to produce a shearing strain
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type of:
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change
undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature
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change
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(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”
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type of:
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deformation
alteration in the shape or dimensions of an object as a result of the application of stress to it
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deformation
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘shear'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
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