- present tense form of shear (3rd person singular).
shears
Britishplural noun
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large scissors, as for cutting cloth, jointing poultry, etc
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a large scissor-like and usually hand-held cutting tool with flat blades, as for cutting hedges
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any of various analogous cutting or clipping implements or machines
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short for sheerlegs
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informal (of a sheep) newly shorn
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.
Instead the final four candidates for the job were a range of eager submissives, each straining to appear enthusiastic to pick up the pruning shears and start cutting rates by the bunch:
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 2026
That means buying fresh lobsters from your local market, boiling them and using kitchen shears to slice their shells from head to tail.
From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2024
"I get the sheep shears on it for a mullet," she said.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2024
“I can’t imagine how frightened those horses must have been,” Brad said as he cropped the grass tightly around the marble stone with garden shears.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2024
Gabe’s smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady’s shears snipping the yarn.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
