Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Shears

Shears (shērz), 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. Pope.

(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.

2. Anything in the form of shears. Specifically: (a) A pair of wings. [Obs.] Spenser. (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.]

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

Rotary shears. See under Rotary.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.