Nearby Words
:10
:09
:08
:07
:06
:05
:04
:03
:02
:01
Shorn
is one of our favorite verbs.
So is peculate. Does it mean:
| to steal or take dishonestly (money, esp. public funds, or property entrusted to one's care); embezzle. |
| to introduce subtleties into or argue subtly about. |
Example Sentences
- But shorn of buffed, blow-dried actors, they lose their practical function and become open-ended.
- They could see many courses of action but, shorn of feedback from the amygdala, couldn't tell good from bad.
- Shorn of all of the economic jargon and legal niceties, that is the logic behind the booming business in bilateral trade.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
verb (used with object)
1.
to cut (something).
2.
to remove by or as if by cutting or clipping with a sharp instrument: to shear wool from sheep.
3.
to cut or clip the hair, fleece, wool, etc., from: to shear sheep.
4.
to strip or deprive (usually followed by of): to shear someone of power.
5.
EXPANDChiefly Scot. to reap with a sickle.
6.
COLLAPSEto travel through by or as if by cutting: Chimney swifts sheared the air.
verb (used without object)
7.
to cut or cut through something with a sharp instrument.
8.
to progress by or as if by cutting: The cruiser sheared through the water.
9.
Mechanics, Geology. to become fractured along a plane as a result of forces acting parallel to the plane.
10.
Chiefly Scot. to reap crops with a sickle.
noun
11.
Usually, shears. (sometimes used with a singular verb)
a.
scissors of large size (usually used with pair of).
b.
any of various other cutting implements or machines having two blades that resemble or suggest those of scissors.
12.
the act or process of shearing or being sheared.
13.
a shearing of sheep (used in stating the age of sheep): a sheep of one shear.
14.
the quantity, especially of wool or fleece, cut off at one shearing.
15.
EXPANDone blade of a pair of large scissors.
16.
Usually, shears. (usually used with a plural verb) Also, sheers. Also called shear legs, sheerlegs. a framework for hoisting heavy weights, consisting of two or more spars with their legs separated, fastened together near the top and steadied by guys, which support a tackle.
17.
a machine for cutting rigid material, as metal in sheet or plate form, by moving the edge of a blade through it.
18.
Mechanics, Geology. the tendency of forces to deform or fracture a member or a rock in a direction parallel to the force, as by sliding one section against another.
19.
COLLAPSEPhysics. the lateral deformation produced in a body by an external force, expressed as the ratio of the lateral displacement between two points lying in parallel planes to the vertical distance between the planes.
Origin:
before 900; (v.) Middle English sheren, Old English sceran, cognate with Dutch, German scheren, Old Norse skera; (noun) (in sense “tool for shearing”) Middle English sheres (plural), continuing Old English scērero, scēar, two words derived from the same root as the v.
before 900; (v.) Middle English sheren, Old English sceran, cognate with Dutch, German scheren, Old Norse skera; (noun) (in sense “tool for shearing”) Middle English sheres (plural), continuing Old English scērero, scēar, two words derived from the same root as the v.
Related forms
shear·er, noun
shear·less, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source
|
Link To shorn
Collins
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
shear
O.E. sceran, scieran (class IV strong verb; past tense scear, pp. scoren), from P.Gmc. *sker- "to cut" (cf. O.N., O.Fris. skera, Du. scheren, Ger. scheren "to shear"), from PIE *(s)ker- "to cut, to scrape, to hack" (cf. Skt. krnati "hurts, wounds, kills," krntati "cuts;" Hittite karsh- "to cut off;"
EXPAND Gk. keirein "to cut, shear;" Lith. skiriu "to separate;" O.Ir. scaraim "I separate;" Welsh ysgar "to separate," ysgyr "fragment").
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Science Dictionary
shear  (shîr) Pronunciation Key
|
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Word Dynamo By Dictionary.com
Matching Quote
Dictionary.com, LLC. Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved.