Shear vs Sheaf - What's the difference?

As verbs the difference between shear and sheaf

is that shear is to cut, originally with a sword or other bladed weapon, now usually with shears, or as if using shears while sheaf is to gather and bind into a sheaf; to make into sheaves; as, to sheaf wheat.

As nouns the difference between shear and sheaf

is that shear is a cutting tool similar to scissors, but often larger while sheaf is a quantity of the stalks and ears of wheat, rye, or other grain, bound together; a bundle of grain or straw.

As an adjective shear

is .

shear

English

(wikipedia shear)

Verb

To cut, originally with a sword or other bladed weapon, now usually with shears, or as if using shears.

* 1819 , Walter Scott, Ivanhoe :

So trenchant was the Templar’s weapon, that it shore asunder, as it had been a willow twig, the tough and plaited handle of the mace, which the ill-fated Saxon reared to parry the blow, and, descending on his head, levelled him with the earth.

* Shakespeare

the golden tresses were shorn away

To remove the fleece from a sheep etc by clipping.

(physics) To deform because of shearing forces.

(Scotland) To reap, as grain.

(Jamieson)

(figurative) To deprive of property; to fleece.

Noun

(en noun)

a cutting tool similar to scissors, but often larger

* Dryden

short of the wool, and naked from the shear

the act of shearing, or something removed by shearing

* Youatt

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.

(physics) a force that produces a shearing strain

(geology) The response of a rock to deformation usually by compressive stress, resulting in particular textures.

Derived terms

* megashear * shearer

Adjective

(head)

Anagrams

* English irregular verbs

sheaf

English

Noun

(en-noun)

A quantity of the stalks and ears of wheat, rye, or other grain, bound together; a bundle of grain or straw.

* 1593 , (William Shakespeare), Titus Andronicus , Act V, Scene III, line 70:

O, let me teach you how to knit again / This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf , / These broken limbs again into one body.

* (rfdate) (John Dryden):

The reaper fills his greedy hands, / And binds the golden sheaves in brittle bands.

Any collection of things bound together; a bundle.

a sheaf of paper

A bundle of arrows sufficient to fill a quiver, or the allowance of each archer.

* (rfdate) (John Dryden):

The sheaf of arrows shook and rattled in the case.

A quantity of arrows, usually twenty-four.

* 1786 , Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons , page 34:

Arrows were anciently made of reeds, afterwards of cornel wood, and occasionally of every species of wood: but according to Roger Ascham, ash was best; arrows were reckoned by sheaves', a ' sheaf consisted of twenty-four arrows.

(mechanical) A sheave.

(mathematics) An abstract construct in topology that associates data to the open sets of a topological space, together with well-defined restrictions from larger to smaller open sets, subject to the condition that compatible data on overlapping open sets corresponds, via the restrictions, to a unique datum on the union of the open sets.

Verb

(en verb)

To gather and bind into a sheaf; to make into sheaves; as, to sheaf wheat.

To collect and bind cut grain, or the like; to make sheaves.

* 1599 , William Shakespeare, As You Like It , Act III, Scene II, line 107:

They that reap must sheaf and bind; Then to cart with Rosalind.

English nouns with irregular plurals