What is "shear"

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.

Shear \Shear\ (sh[=e]r), 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.

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.

Old English sceran, scieran (class IV strong verb; past tense scear, past participle scoren) "to cleave, hew, cut with a sharp instrument; cut (hair); shear (sheep)," from Proto-Germanic *sker- "to cut" (cognates: Old Norse and Old Frisian skera, Dutch scheren, German scheren "to shear"), from PIE *(s)ker- (1) "to cut, to scrape, to hack" (cognates: Sanskrit krnati "hurts, wounds, kills," krntati "cuts;" Hittite karsh- "to cut off;" Greek keirein "to cut, shear;" Latin curtus "short;" Lithuanian skiriu "to separate;" Old Irish scaraim "I separate;" Welsh ysgar "to separate," ysgyr "fragment").

"act of clipping," 1610s, also as a unit of measure of the age of a sheep, from shear (v.). Scientific and mechanical sense "type of strain" is from 1850.

1. (misspelling of sheer English) n. 1 a cutting tool similar to scissors, but often larger 2 the act of shearing, or something removed by shearing 3 (context physics English) forces that push in opposite directions. 4 (context geology English) The response of a rock to deformation usually by compressive stress, resulting in particular textures. v

2. 1 To cut, originally with a sword or other bladed weapon, now usually with shears, or as if using shears. 2 To remove the fleece from a sheep etc by clipping. 3 (context physics English) To deform because of forces pushing in opposite directions. 4 (context Scotland English) To reap, as grain. 5 (context figurative English) To deprive of property; to fleece.

1. n. (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"

2. (usually plural) large scissors with strong blades [syn: shears]

3. a large edge tool that cuts sheet metal by passing a blade through it

1. v. cut with shears; "shear hedges"

2. shear the wool from; "shear sheep" [syn: fleece]

3. cut or cut through with shears

Shear may refer to:

• Shearing animals, the collection of wool from various species. Sheep shearing is most common. See the article on " Wool" for other species

There are many types of shears used to shear sheet metal.

thumb|right| Boudinaged quartz vein(with strain fringe) showing sinistral shear sense, Starlight Pit, Fortnum Gold Mine, Western Australia Shear is the response of a rock to deformation usually by compressive stress and forms particular textures. Shear can be homogeneous or non-homogeneous, and may be pure shear or simple shear. Study of geological shear is related to the study of structural geology, rock microstructure or rock texture and fault mechanics.

The process of shearing occurs within brittle, brittle-ductile, and ductile rocks. Within purely brittle rocks, compressive stress results in fracturing and simple faulting.

Shear (Walther Feyzioglu) is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics superhero (but not in the Marvel Universe), member of the Strikeforce: Morituri (a series in its own mostly self-contained continuity). The character was created by Peter B. Gillis and Brent Anderson.