Note: It is especially applied to the cutting of wool from
sheep or their skins, and the nap from cloth.
2. To separate or sever with shears or a similar instrument;
to cut off; to clip (something) from a surface; as, to
shear a fleece.
Before the golden tresses . . . were shorn away.
--Shak.
3. To reap, as grain. [Scot.] --Jamieson.
4. Fig.: To deprive of property; to fleece.
5. (Mech.) To produce a change of shape in by a shear. See
{Shear}, n., 4.
2. The product of the act or operation of clipping with
shears or a shearing machine; as, the whole shearing of a
flock; the shearings from cloth.
3. Same as {Shearling}. --Youatt.
4. The act or operation of reaping. [Scot.]
5. The act or operation of dividing with shears; as, the
shearing of metal plates.
6. The process of preparing shear steel; tilting.
7. (Mining) The process of making a vertical side cutting in
working into a face of coal.
{Shearing machine}.
(a) A machine with blades, or rotary disks, for dividing
plates or bars of metal.
(b) A machine for shearing cloth.