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shear - Meaning and Examples

Meaning of 'shear' (Webster Dictionary)

1 . Shear [ v. i.]
- To deviate. See Sheer.
- 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.
2 . Shear [ v. t.]
- To cut, clip, or sever anything from with shears or a like instrument; as, to shear sheep; to shear cloth.
- To separate or sever with shears or a similar instrument; to cut off; to clip (something) from a surface; as, to shear a fleece.
- To reap, as grain.
- Fig.: To deprive of property; to fleece.
- To produce a change of shape in by a shear. See Shear, n., 4.
- A pair of shears; -- now always used in the plural, but formerly also in the singular. See Shears.
- A shearing; -- used in designating the age of sheep.
- 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.
- 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.

Meaning of 'shear' (Princeton's WordNet)

1 . shear [ n]
Meaning (1):
- (physics) a deformation of an object in which parallel planes remain parallel but are shifted in a direction parallel to themselves
Example in sentence:
  • the shear changed the quadrilateral into a parallelogram
2 . shear [ v]
Meaning (2):
- cut with shears
Example in sentence:
  • shear hedges
Meaning (3):
- shear the wool from
Example in sentence:
  • shear sheep
Meaning (4):
- cut or cut through with shears
Example in sentence:
  • shear the wool off the lamb

Nearby Words:

she shea tree sheading sheaf sheafy sheal shealing shearbill sheard sheared

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