Shear \Shear\, v. t. [imp. Shearedor Shore;p. p. Sheared or Shorn; p. pr. & vb. n. Shearing.]

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

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

Note: It is especially applied to the cutting of wool from sheep or their skins, and the nap from cloth.

2. To separate or sever with shears or a similar instrument; to cut off; to clip (something) from a surface; as, to shear a fleece.

Before the golden tresses . . . were shorn away. --Shak.

3. To reap, as grain. [Scot.]

--Jamieson.

4. Fig.: To deprive of property; to fleece.

5. (Mech.) To produce a change of shape in by a shear. See Shear, n., 4.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Shear \Shear\, n. [AS. sceara. See Shear, v. t.]

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

On his head came razor none, nor shear. --Chaucer.

Short of the wool, and naked from the shear. --Dryden.

2. A shearing; -- used in designating the age of sheep.

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. --Youatt.

3. (Engin.) 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.

4. (Mech.) 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.

Shear blade, one of the blades of shears or a shearing machine.

Shear hulk. See under Hulk.

Shear steel, a steel suitable for shears, scythes, and other cutting instruments, prepared from fagots of blistered steel by repeated heating, rolling, and tilting, to increase its malleability and fineness of texture.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Shear \Shear\, v. i.

1. To deviate. See Sheer.

2. (Engin.) 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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)