1
as in to shave
to make (something) shorter or smaller with the use of a cutting instrument
it took almost a week to shear all the wool off the flock of sheep
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to slit
to penetrate with a sharp edge (as a knife)
the shark's razor-sharp teeth sheared the swimmer's flesh right down to the bone
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of shear
Dramatic new video shows the jet’s rear landing gear buckling and the right wing shearing away in a fireball after making a hard landing.
—
Alexandra Banner, CNN, 19 Feb. 2025
Rescue workers sheared his clothes off him with scissors, put a brace around his neck and laid him on a board.
—Katherine Rosman, New York Times, 24 Jan. 2025
Prune branches selectively rather than shearing indiscriminately.
—Luke Miller, Better Homes & Gardens, 1 Jan. 2025
Photographs from The Courier Journal's archives show the aftermath of the bridge shearing the tops from large vehicles as early as 1978.
—Marina Johnson, The Courier-Journal, 27 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for shear
Alexandra Banner, CNN, 19 Feb. 2025
Rescue workers sheared his clothes off him with scissors, put a brace around his neck and laid him on a board.
—Katherine Rosman, New York Times, 24 Jan. 2025
Prune branches selectively rather than shearing indiscriminately.
—Luke Miller, Better Homes & Gardens, 1 Jan. 2025
Photographs from The Courier Journal's archives show the aftermath of the bridge shearing the tops from large vehicles as early as 1978.
—Marina Johnson, The Courier-Journal, 27 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for shear
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shear
Verb
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Derrin claims Farley would also shave and put his body hair on people and their food.—
David Matthews,
New York Daily News,
26 Mar. 2025
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Revisited epic, and its power is undiminished even though Dylan shaved off some of the latter verses.—
Andy Greene,
Rolling Stone,
26 Mar. 2025
Verb
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Then, fearing he'd be blamed, Tripp stole a knife from the office of pastry chef Didier Gotthard (Bronson Pinchot) and used it to slit A.B.'s wrists in order to make his death look more like a suicide.—
Megan McCluskey,
TIME,
21 Mar. 2025
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Heat is then directed upward and outward via outlet slits on the card edges to reduce the recirculation of heated air.—
John Burek,
PCMAG,
20 Jan. 2025
Verb
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Pitino pulled star wing RJ Luis out of the lineup after making two free throws to cut Arkansas’ lead to two points with less than five minutes to play.—
Brendan Quinn,
The Athletic,
23 Mar. 2025
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Will cutting sustainability contribute to losing trust with employees, consumers, and communities?—
Paul Klein,
Forbes,
23 Mar. 2025
Verb
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The basic accessory comes with a processor blade and two multiuse shredding and slicing discs.—
Adam Campbell-Schmitt,
Bon Appétit,
20 Mar. 2025
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That data can then be sliced into chunks to determine how fast the Universe was expanding at each point of time in the past, the better to model how dark energy was affecting that expansion.—
Jennifer Ouellette,
Ars Technica,
19 Mar. 2025
Verb
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Combining layoffs and other types of departures, the Trump administration has trimmed the department's workforce from 4,133 to 2,183 since the start of his second term.—
Joey Garrison,
USA TODAY,
20 Mar. 2025
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Stefan Wermuth | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Swiss National bank on Thursday trimmed its key interest rate by a further 25 basis points as the country’s economy grapples with depressed inflation.—
Sophie Kiderlin,
CNBC,
20 Mar. 2025
Verb
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And Fitzgerald provided the bulk of their offense from the nine-hole, ripping a two-run home run to left-center in the third inning and scoring the go-ahead run in the seventh on Grant McCray’s single up the middle.—
Evan Webeck,
Mercury News,
26 Mar. 2025
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The moral scaffolding that keeps us from giving in to our primal desires gets ripped away and, naturally, very rudimentary notions of decency fall apart.—
Daniel Fienberg,
The Hollywood Reporter,
24 Mar. 2025
Verb
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The danger was obvious at Villa Park, but Justin did a better job of heading the danger away against Wolverhampton Wanderers at King Power Stadium just before Christmas… … until Wolves gathered up the second ball and Nelson Semedo clipped another high ball back into the box.—
Rob Tanner,
The Athletic,
14 Mar. 2025
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Also new for the season are leather goods, which range from sunglass carriers to pencil cases, all with the same D-shaped ring that allows them to be clipped onto a lanyard — for the sake of practicality as much as safety on the go.—
Lily Templeton,
WWD,
12 Mar. 2025
Verb
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Big studios have slashed budgets, making life for production crews more financially precarious.—
Steven Kurutz,
New York Times,
28 Mar. 2025
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The vacuum, which is typically priced at $450, has been slashed to just $300 at Amazon.—
Amy Schulman,
People.com,
28 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Shear.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shear. Accessed 2 Apr. 2025.
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