Shear, n.
 1. A pair of shears; -- now always used in the plural, but formerly also in the singular. See Shears.
    On his head came razor none, nor shear.   --Chaucer.
    Short of the wool, and naked from the shear.   --Dryden.
 2. A shearing; -- used in designating the age of sheep.
    After the second shearing, he is a two-shear ram; . . . at the expiration of another year, he is a three-shear ram; the name always taking its date from the time of shearing.   --Youatt.
 3. Engin. An action, resulting from applied forces, which tends to cause two contiguous parts of a body to slide relatively to each other in a direction parallel to their plane of contact; -- also called shearing stress, and tangential stress.
 4. Mech. A strain, or change of shape, of an elastic body, consisting of an extension in one direction, an equal compression in a perpendicular direction, with an unchanged magnitude in the third direction.
 Shear blade, one of the blades of shears or a shearing machine.
 Shear hulk. See under Hulk.
 Shear steel, a steel suitable for shears, scythes, and other cutting instruments, prepared from fagots of blistered steel by repeated heating, rolling, and tilting, to increase its malleability and fineness of texture.


 Sheer, n.
 1. Naut. (a) The longitudinal upward curvature of the deck, gunwale, and lines of a vessel, as when viewed from the side. (b) The position of a vessel riding at single anchor and swinging clear of it.
 2. A turn or change in a course.
    Give the canoe a sheer and get nearer to the shore.   --Cooper.
 3. pl. Shears See Shear.
 Sheer batten Shipbuilding, a long strip of wood to guide the carpenters in following the sheer plan.
 Sheer boom, a boom slanting across a stream to direct floating logs to one side.
 Sheer hulk. See Shear hulk, under Hulk.
 Sheer plan, or Sheer draught Shipbuilding, a projection of the lines of a vessel on a vertical longitudinal plane passing through the middle line of the vessel.
 Sheer pole Naut., an iron rod lashed to the shrouds just above the dead-eyes and parallel to the ratlines.
 Sheer strake Shipbuilding, the strake under the gunwale on the top side. --Totten.
 To break sheer Naut., to deviate from sheer, and risk fouling the anchor.

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 Hulk n.
 1. The body of a ship or decked vessel of any kind; esp., the body of an old vessel laid by as unfit for service. “Some well-timbered hulk.”
 2. A heavy ship of clumsy build.
 3. Anything bulky or unwieldly.
 Shear hulk, an old ship fitted with an apparatus to fix or take out the masts of a ship.
 The hulks, old or dismasted ships, formerly used as prisons. [Eng.] --Dickens.