shear meaning

UK /ʃɪə/ US /ʃɪr/ 1 syllable

shear (verb): cut with shears.

shear has 6 meanings in this dictionary, as verb and noun.

shear as a verb

  1. cut with shears
    • shear hedges

    Type of: snip

    Related forms: shears, shearer, shearing

  2. shear the wool from
    • shear sheep

    Synonyms: fleece

    Type of: shave

    Related forms: shears, shearer, shearing

  3. cut or cut through with shears
    • shear the wool off the lamb

    Type of: cut

    Related forms: shearer, shearing

  4. become deformed by forces tending to produce a shearing strain

    Type of: change

shear as a noun

  1. (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

    Type of: deformation

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

    Type of: edge tool

How to pronounce shear

shear is pronounced /ʃɪə/ in British English and /ʃɪr/ in American English. It has 1 syllable.

Words that rhyme with shear

Word lists: words starting with SH · words ending in AR · 5-letter words

More about shear on Wikipedia.