shears

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Very likely, but Fowler's would like to know exactly how the shears were affected by stones on the ground.

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Definitions (20)

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  1. A cutting- or clipping-instrument consisting of two pivoted blades with beveled edges facing each other, such as is used for cutting cloth, or of a single piece of steel bent round until the blades meet, the elasticity of the back causing the blades to spring open when the pressure used in cutting has ceased. The latter is the kind used, by farriers, sheep-shearers, weavers, etc. Shears of the first kind differ from scissors chiefly in being larger. Implements of similar form used for cutting metal are also called shears. See also cuts under clipping-shears and sheep-shears. Think you I bear the shears of destiny? Shak., K. John, iv. 2. 91. Time waited upon the shears, and, as soon as the thread was cut, caught the medals, and carried them to the river of Lethe. Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. 132. Puddled bars are also generally sheared hot, either by crocodile or guillotine shears, into lengths suitable for piling. W. H. Greenwood, Steel and Iron, p. 347.
  2. Something in the form of the blades of shears. (a) A pair of wings. Two sharpe winged sheares, Decked with diverse plumes, like painted Jayes, Were fixed at his backe to cut his ayery wayes. Spenser, F. Q., II. viii. 5.
  3. In bookbinding, a long, heavy, curved knife, with a handle at one end and a heavy counterpoise at the other end of the blade, which cuts thick millboards, scissors, fashion, against a fixed straight knife on the side of an iron table.
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Etymologies (1)

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  1. Formerly also sheers (still used in nautical sense: see sheers) ; from Middle English sheres, scheres. plural, also schere, shere, singular, shears: see shear.
 

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