Shear
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): ( v. t.) To reap, as grain.
(2): ( v. t.) To produce a change of shape in by a shear. See Shear, n., 4.
(3): ( v. t.) A pair of shears; - now always used in the plural, but formerly also in the singular. See Shears.
(4): ( v. t.) A shearing; - used in designating the age of sheep.
(5): ( v. t.) 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.
(6): ( v. t.) 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.
(7): ( v. t.) To cut, clip, or sever anything from with shears or a like instrument; as, to shear sheep; to shear cloth.
(8): ( v. t.) To separate or sever with shears or a similar instrument; to cut off; to clip (something) from a surface; as, to shear a fleece.
(9): ( v. i.) To deviate. See Sheer.
(10): ( v. i.) 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.
(11): ( v. t.) Fig.: To deprive of property; to fleece.
King James Dictionary [2]
Shear, pret. sheared pp. sheared or shorn. The old pret. shore is entirely obsolete.
1. To cut or clip something from the surface with an instrument of two blades to separate any thing from the surface by shears, scissors or a like instrument as, to shear sheep to shear cloth. It is appropriately used for the cutting of wool from sheep on their skins, for clipping the nap from cloth, but may be applied to other things as, a horse shears the ground in feeding much closer than an ox. 2. To separate by shears as, to shear a fleece. 3. To reap. Not in use. Scotish.
Shear, To deviate. See Sheer.
