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Shear vs Tear - What's the difference?

shear | tear |

As verbs the difference between shear and tear

is that shear is to cut, originally with a sword or other bladed weapon, now usually with shears, or as if using shears while tear is to rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.

As nouns the difference between shear and tear

is that shear is a cutting tool similar to scissors, but often larger while tear is a hole or break caused by tearing.

As an adjective shear

is misspelling of lang=en.

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)
  • tear

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

    Verb

  • To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
  • * 1856 : (Gustave Flaubert), (Madame Bovary), Part III Chapter XI, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
  • He suffered, poor man, at seeing her so badly dressed, with laceless boots, and the arm-holes of her pinafore torn down to the hips; for the charwoman took no care of her.
  • To injure as if by pulling apart.
  • To cause to lose some kind of unity or coherence.
  • *
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.}}
  • To make (an opening) with force or energy.
  • To remove by tearing.
  • To demolish
  • To become torn, especially accidentally.
  • To move or act with great speed, energy, or violence.
  • To smash or enter something with great force.
  • Synonyms
    * (break) rend, rip * (remove by tearing) rip out, tear off, tear out

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A hole or break caused by tearing.
  • A small tear is easy to mend, if it is on the seam.
    Derived terms
    * wear and tear

    Derived terms

    * tearsheet

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), (m), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (wikipedia tear) (en noun)
  • A drop of clear, salty liquid produced from the eyes by crying or irritation.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=6 citation , passage=‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. […]’.}}
  • Something in the form of a transparent drop of fluid matter; also, a solid, transparent, tear-shaped drop, as of some balsams or resins.
  • * Dryden
  • Let Araby extol her happy coast, / Her fragrant flowers, her trees with precious tears .
  • That which causes or accompanies tears; a lament; a dirge.
  • * Milton
  • some melodious tear
    Derived terms
    {{der3 , crocodile tears , shed a tear , teardrop , tear duct , tearful , tear up , teary , two tears in a bucket }}

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To produce tears.
  • Her eyes began to tear in the harsh wind.