SHEAR


Meaning of SHEAR in English

shear /ʃɪə $ ʃɪr/ BrE AmE verb ( past tense sheared , past participle sheared or shorn /ʃɔːn $ ʃɔːrn/) [transitive]

[ Language: Old English ; Origin: scieran ]

1 . to cut the wool off a sheep

2 . literary to cut off someone’s hair:

Her long fair hair had been shorn.

3 . be shorn of something to have something valuable or important taken away from you:

Though shorn of some of its powers, the party remains in control.

shear off phrasal verb

if part of something shears off, or is sheared off, it suddenly becomes separated, especially after being pulled or hit with a lot of force

shear something ↔ off

The left wing had been almost completely sheared off.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.      Longman - Словарь современного английского языка.