SHEARS • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Shears

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/ʃɪrz/ Listen

noun

Shears n. pl.

A cutting instrument. Specifically:

(a)

An instrument consisting of two blades, commonly with bevel edges, connected by a pivot, and working on both sides of the material to be cut, used for cutting cloth and other substances. "Fate urged the shears, and cut the sylph in twain."

(b)

A similar instrument the blades of which are extensions of a curved spring, used for shearing sheep or skins.

(c)

A shearing machine; a blade, or a set of blades, working against a resisting edge.

Anything in the form of shears. Specifically:

(a)

A pair of wings. (Obs.)

(b)

An apparatus for raising heavy weights, and especially for stepping and unstepping the lower masts of ships. It consists of two or more spars or pieces of timber, fastened together near the top, steadied by a guy or guys, and furnished with the necessary tackle. (Written also sheers)

(Mach.) The bedpiece of a machine tool, upon which a table or slide rest is secured; as, the shears of a lathe or planer.

Rotary shears. See under Rotary.

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Etymology of 'Shears'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Shears" Quotes from Famous Books

... the first evening; for when he put on his grandfather's coat, his mother planned a long while to see if there was not some way by which she could make it look better. Once she took the shears and was going to cut off the tail, but Paul stopped her. "I don't want it ...

— Winning His Way • Charles Carleton Coffin

... strewn with branches of rose vine, and the pruning shears lay open upon them, just as they had fallen from the old man's hand. The sun had passed several degrees below the meridian, and the shadows of the twisted iron columns were aslant eastward, but the glare of ...

— At the Mercy of Tiberius • August Evans Wilson

... as she watched her brother's approach along the winding path. What a handsome young figure of manhood he made in his Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers, the close-fitting deerstalker cap showing the light chestnut hair, from which no barber's shears could succeed in banishing the natural kink and curl. No one would suspect, to look at him, that he cherished poetical ambitions! Margot was English enough to be thankful for this fact, illogical as it may appear. She was proud to realise that he ...

— Big Game - A Story for Girls • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... systematically and well arranged. Each shearer has a trap-door close to him, out of which he pushes his sheep as soon as the fleece is off, and there are little pens outside, so that the manager can notice whether the poor animal has been too much cut with the shears, or badly shorn in any other respect, and can tell exactly which shearer is to blame. Before this plan was adopted it was hopeless to try to find out who was the delinquent, for no one would acknowledge to the least ...

— Station Life in New Zealand • Lady Barker

... suit set me back sixty-five. Anything in the wearing apparel line has got to be just so, or it's to the misfit parlors for it, for mine. If I work I won't have so much coin to hand over to the little man with the big shears." ...

— The Trimmed Lamp • O. Henry

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