KJV Dictionary Definition: shear

shear

SHEAR, v.t. 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.

sheared

SHE'ARED, pp. Clipped; deprived of woll, hair, nap.

shears

SHEARS, n. plu. from the verb.

1. An instrument consisting of two blades with a bevel edge, movable on a pin, used for cutting cloth and other substances by interception between the two blades. Shears differ from scissors chiefly in being larger.

Fate urg'd the shears and cut the sylph in twain. Pope.

2. Something in the form of the blades of shears.

3. Wings. Not in use.

4. An engine for raising heavy weights. See Sheers.

5. The denomimation of the age of sheep from the cutting of the teeth; as sheep of one shear, two shear, &c. Local.