Part 311

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, 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.

Shear"bill`, n. (Zoöl.) The black skimmer. See Skimmer.

Sheard (?), n. See Shard. [Obs.]

Shear"er (?), n. 1. One who shears.

Like a lamb dumb before his shearer.

Acts viii. 32.

2. A reaper. [Scot.] Jamieson.

Shear"ing, n. 1. The act or operation of clipping with shears or a shearing machine, as the wool from sheep, or the nap from cloth.

2. The product of the act or operation of clipping with shears or a shearing machine; as, the whole shearing of a flock; the shearings from cloth.

3. Same as Shearling. Youatt.

4. The act or operation of reaping. [Scot.]

5. The act or operation of dividing with shears; as, the shearing of metal plates.

6. The process of preparing shear steel; tilting.

7. (Mining) The process of making a vertical side cutting in working into a face of coal.

Shearing machine. (a) A machine with blades, or rotary disks, for dividing plates or bars of metal. (b) A machine for shearing cloth.

Shear"ling (?), n. A sheep but once sheared.

Shear"man (?), n.; pl. Shearmen (&?;). One whose occupation is to shear cloth.

Shearn (?), n. [AS. scearn. Cf. Scarn.] Dung; excrement. [Obs.] [Written also shern.] Holland.

Shears (?), n. pl. [Formerly used also in the singular. See Shear, n., 1.] 1. 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.