shear
verb (used with object)
to cut (something).
had shorn
-
past perfectof shear.past perfect
Used to express a completed action that took place before another specific past action occurred.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Walt Whitman wrote of Custer’s tawny flowing hair in battle, despite the fact he had shorn his famous locks days earlier in preparation for what he knew would be a bloody campaign.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 29, 2016
If only Aranoa had shorn his hangdog movie down to Robbins and Del Toro alone—a pair of patient no-hopers, bulky and bearded, ruing the wreckage of Eastern Europe like gunless cowboys eying the old West.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 18, 2016
Her hair, which she had shorn into a severe cut, evoked, uneasily, both ostracized woman and feisty feminist.
From New York Times ● Mar. 5, 2014
The debate was over the State Department's budget, from which an appropriations subcommittee had shorn $31 million requested for the Office of International Information and Cultural Affairs.
From Time Magazine Archive
Already the banks and the distant meadows wore a sober and deepened tinge, for the September air had shorn them of their summer's pride.
From A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers by Henry David Thoreau
