shearing

English

Etymology

From Middle English scherynge; equivalent to shear +‎ -ing.

Adjective

shearing (not comparable)

1. Tending to cut or tear.

Verb

shearing

1. present participle and gerund of shear

Noun

shearing (countable and uncountable, plural shearings)

1. The act or operation of clipping with shears or a shearing machine, as the wool from sheep, or the nap from cloth.
2. The material cut off in this way.

   the whole shearing of a flock; the shearings from cloth

3. Deformation by forces acting in opposite directions.
4. Alternative form of shearling.
   • 1864, William Youatt, The Complete Grazier and Farmer's and Cattle-Breeder's:

     When male sheep have been castrated , they are termed — from the period of weaning to that of shearing — wether , or wedder or shear hogs or tegs, then shearings , shearlings , dinmonts , & c .

5. (Scotland) The act or operation of reaping.
6. The act or operation of dividing with shears.

   the shearing of metal plates

7. The process of preparing shear steel; tilting.
8. (mining) The process of making a vertical side cutting in working into a face of coal.

Derived terms

• shearing shed

Translations

act of clipping fur/hair with shears

• Russian: стрижка (ru) f (strižka)
• Ukrainian: стри́жка f (strýžka)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “shearing”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• gnashier, hearings, hearsing