SHEAR
What does "SHEAR" mean?
To cut through something, especially to clip wool from a sheep.
Meanings
- To cut the wool or hair off an animal, especially a sheep. It takes a skilled hand to shear a sheep in under a minute.
- To cut through something with a sharp instrument or by force. The blast sheared the bolts clean off the door.
- In physics and engineering, a strain produced when parallel forces push a material in opposite directions. Wind shear can throw an aircraft off its glide path. technical
Word origin
From Old English 'sceran', meaning to cut or cut off, from a Proto-Germanic root '*skeraną'; related to 'shore', 'share', and 'scissors'.
Remember it
SHEAR holds 'HEAR' but means to cut - and the sound of shears snipping is exactly what you HEAR.
A little poem
Spring on the high farm-
the heavy fleece falls away,
the lamb walks lighter.
haiku
Wordplay
- The pilot and the farmer argued about shear all night - one feared it in the sky, the other made a living from it.
What it teaches
The same force that frees a sheep of its weight can split a bolt of steel - it's all in the angle.
Quick facts
What does SHEAR mean?
To cut through something, especially to clip wool from a sheep.
Is SHEAR a valid word?
Yes — SHEAR is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is SHEAR?
SHEAR has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does SHEAR come from?
From Old English 'sceran', meaning to cut or cut off, from a Proto-Germanic root '*skeraną'; related to 'shore', 'share', and 'scissors'.
What can SHEAR teach us?
The same force that frees a sheep of its weight can split a bolt of steel - it's all in the angle.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.