shears

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ʃɪə(ɹ)z/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ʃɪɹz/
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)z
• Homophone: sheers

shears

1. plural of shear

shears (1)

shears

1. A tool consisting of two blades with bevel edges, connected by a pivot, used for cutting cloth, or for removing the fleece from sheep etc.
   • 1974, Phyllis W. Schwebke, Margaret B. Krohn, How to Sew Leather, Suede, Fur, page 20:

     Cut with a shears using long, even strokes.

2. (engineering) The bedpiece of a machine tool, upon which a table or slide rest is secured.

   the shears of a lathe or planer

3. 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. Also sheers.
4. Anything resembling a pair of shears in shape or motion, such as a pair of wings.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     two sharp winged Shears, Decked with divers Plumes, like painted Jays, Were fixed at his Back, to cut his airy ways.

• The bladed tool may be used in the singular, a shears, or the plural, shears or a pair of shears.

shears

1. third-person singular simple present indicative of shear

• Shares, ashers, harses, her ass, rashes, sehras, shares