Shear Meaning

/ʃɪə(ɹ)/
B2

Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Listen pronunciation

verbTo remove the fleece from (a sheep, llama, etc.) by clipping.

verbTo cut the hair of (a person).

They usually shear sheep in spring.
I cannot shear my sheep now. It's still cold.
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
Before the weather turns cold, the farmer needs to ____ the sheep's thick wool.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The farmer plans to ____ the entire flock of sheep next week to collect their valuable fleece.

From Middle English sheren, scheren, from Old English sċieran (“to shear; to shave”), from Proto-West Germanic *skeran, from Proto-Germanic *skeraną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”). Cognate with West Frisian skarre, Low German, Dutch, and German scheren, Danish skære, Norwegian Bokmål skjære, Norwegian Nynorsk skjera, Swedish skära, Faroese and Icelandic skera, Finnish keritä; and (from Indo-European) with Ancient Greek κείρω (keírō, “to cut off”), Latin caro (“flesh”), Albanian shqerr (“to tear, cut”), harr (“to cut, to mow”), Lithuanian ski̇̀rti (“separate”), Welsh ysgar (“separate”). See also sharp.

"So trenchant was the Templar’s weapon, that it shore asunder, as it had been a willow twig, the tough and plaited handle of the mace, which the ill-fated Saxon reared to parry the blow, and, descending on his head, levelled him with the earth." — 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe:
"the golden tresses […] were shorn away" — 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 68”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
"The total along-the-runway wind component sheared from an 8-knot headwind to about a 56-knot tailwind over a 44-second period." — 1985 March 21, National Transportation Safety Board, “2.3 Airplane Takeoff Performance”, in Aircraft Accident Report: United Airlines Flight 663, Boeing 727-222, N7647U, Denver, Colorado, May 31, 1984, page 41:
"Soon as the bending Scythe, And Sickle keen, have shear'd the golden Grain, Array'd in all the Equipage of Death, Forth the stern Sportsman stalks" — 1769, John Aldington, A Poem on the Cruelty of Shooting etc.:
"short of their wool, and naked from the shear" — 1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words

CEFR Practice Quiz
Before the weather turns cold, the farmer needs to ____ the sheep's thick wool.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The farmer plans to ____ the entire flock of sheep next week to collect their valuable fleece.

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