Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A pair of shears of medium or small size. See shears.
  • noun Candle-snuffers.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun plural A cutting instrument resembling shears, but smaller, consisting of two cutting blades with handles, movable on a pin in the center, by which they are held together. Often called a pair of scissors.
  • noun plural (Zoöl.), [Prov. Eng.] the European goatsucker.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun countable A tool used for cutting thin material, consisting of two crossing blades attached at a pivot point in such a way that the blades slide across each other when the handles are closed.
  • noun countable, rugby An attacking move conducted by two players; the player without the ball runs from one side of the ball carrier, behind the ball carrier, and receives a pass from the ball carrier on the other side.
  • noun countable, skating A method of skating with one foot significantly in front of the other.
  • noun countable, wrestling A scissors hold.
  • verb Third-person singular simple present indicative form of scissor.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a gymnastic exercise performed on the pommel horse when the gymnast moves his legs as the blades of scissors move
  • noun a wrestling hold in which you wrap your legs around the opponents body or head and put your feet together and squeeze
  • noun an edge tool having two crossed pivoting blades

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English sisoures (attested since 1350–1400), from Old French cisoires, from Vulgar Latin *cīsōria, plural of Late Latin cīsōrium ("cutting tool") (compare chisel); from Latin word root -cīsus (compare excise) or cæsus, past participle of cædere ("to cut").

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Examples

  • In fact, it was said that they seldom left the IWW halls to go uptown into what they called the scissors belt sections of the city.

    Memories Of The Industrial Workers Of The World 1997

  • They have the same root as the word scissors, meaning they are designed, like scissors, to make a cut.

    Christian Grantham 2009

  • They have the same root as the word scissors, meaning they are designed, like scissors, to make a cut.

    NPR Topics: News 2009

  • They have the same root as the word scissors, meaning they are designed, like scissors, to make a cut.

    NPR Topics: News 2009

  • They have the same root as the word scissors, meaning they are designed, like scissors, to make a cut.

    NPR Topics: News 2009

  • They have the same root as the word scissors, meaning they are designed, like scissors, to make a cut.

    NPR Topics: News 2009

  • In those days, all we had was tinfoil, catalog pages, boxes, home made paste, string, pieces of fabric, plain scissors, wax paper and maybe a few other things, but we used our imagination and were able to do quite a bit.

    Another Box 2009

  • Just thinking about that little girl with scissors is enough to keep me awake at night.

    Critic's Corner Weekend: 'Ugly Betty,'Night of the Living Dead,' 'Desperate Housewives' 2009

  • In those days, all we had was tinfoil, catalog pages, boxes, home made paste, string, pieces of fabric, plain scissors, wax paper and maybe a few other things, but we used our imagination and were able to do quite a bit.

    Archive 2009-01-01 2009

  • Also, rock-paper-scissors is a super simple game in terms of game theory, just throw randomly and you'll aways reach equilibrium.

    Singularity Watch, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

Comments

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  • Alfred Lord Tennyson believed he knew the quantity of every word in the English language except perhaps "scissors".

    -Baron Hallam Tennyson, The Life and Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson.

    August 14, 2009

  • Cool, I've just transcribed an interview with Emilie Autumn who, among other things, talked about her her song Shalott!

    Hmm, I wonder what's the quantity of something as lovely as alleviate.

    August 14, 2009

  • Leonardo DaVinci could control seven pairs of scissors independantly with one hand.

    August 14, 2009

  • Uh, alleviate is a verb, so it has no quantity. I think that "every word" means "every noun" in that sentence.

    August 17, 2009

  • hey

    March 14, 2013

  • impossible POSSIBLEUNDERSCORE

    March 14, 2013