What is "shear hulk"

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.

Hulk \Hulk\, n. [OE. hulke a heavy ship, AS. hulc a light, swift ship; akin to D. hulk a ship of burden, G. holk, OHG. holcho; perh. fr. LL. holcas, Gr. ?, prop., a ship which is towed, fr. ? to draw, drag, tow. Cf. Wolf, Holcad.]

1. The body of a ship or decked vessel of any kind; esp., the body of an old vessel laid by as unfit for service. ``Some well-timbered hulk.''
   --Spenser.

2. A heavy ship of clumsy build.
   --Skeat.

3. Anything bulky or unwieldly.
   --Shak.

   Shear hulk, an old ship fitted with an apparatus to fix or take out the masts of a ship.

   The hulks, old or dismasted ships, formerly used as prisons. [Eng.]
   --Dickens.