shear (shîr)v. sheared, sheared or shorn (shôrn), shear·ing, shears v.tr.1. To remove (fleece or hair) by cutting or clipping.2. To remove the hair or fleece from.3. To cut with or as if with shears: shearing a hedge.4. To divest or deprive as if by cutting: The prisoners were shorn of their dignity.v.intr.1. To use a cutting tool such as shears.2. To move or proceed by or as if by cutting: shear through the wheat.3. Physics To become deformed by shear force.n.1. often shearsa. A pair of scissors.b. Any of various implements or machines that cut with a scissorlike action.2. The act, process, or result of shearing, especially when used to indicate a sheep’s age: a two-shear ram.3. Something cut off by shearing.4. also sheers (shîrz)(used with a sing. or pl. verb) An apparatus used to lift heavy weights, consisting of two or more spars joined at the top and spread at the base, the tackle being suspended from the top.5. Physics a. See shear force.b. See shear strain.c. See shear stress.[Middle English scheren, from Old English sceran; see sker- in Indo-European roots. N., from Middle English shere, from Old English sc?ar; see sker- in Indo-European roots.]shear?er n.American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.shears (???z) pl n1. (Tools) a. large scissors, as for cutting cloth, jointing poultry, etcb. a large scissor-like and usually hand-held cutting tool with flat blades, as for cutting hedges2. (Tools) any of various analogous cutting or clipping implements or machines3. (Mechanical Engineering) short for sheerlegs4. (Agriculture) off the shears informal Austral (of a sheep) newly shornCollins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014