1. [n]  edge tool that cuts sheet metal by passing a blade through it
2. [n]  (physics) a deformation of an object in which parallel planes remain parallel but are shifted in a direction parallel to themselves; "the shear changed the quadrilateral into a parallelogram"
3. [v]  cut with shears, as of hedges
4. [v]  cut or cut through with shears
5. [v]  shear the wool from; "shear sheep"

Shear
Peter Nicholson, a married London-based geologist, travels to a Mediterranean island to investigate a quarry whose ownership is in dispute. He takes his young girlfriend, Margaret, with him, but what was meant to be an idyllic interlude is disrupted by a communication from his wife, who has just discovered she is pregnant. In Tim Parks`s own description, SHEAR is a thriller seen through the eyes of a geologist on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

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1. \Shear\, v. t. [imp. {Sheared}or {Shore};p. p. {Sheared}
   or {Shorn}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Shearing}.] [OE. sheren,
   scheren, to shear, cut, shave, AS. sceran, scieran, scyran;
   akin to D. & G. scheren, Icel. skera, Dan. ski?re, Gr. ???.
   Cf. {Jeer}, {Score}, {Shard}, {Share}, {Sheer} to turn
   aside.]
   1. To cut, clip, or sever anything from with shears or a like
      instrument; as, to shear sheep; to shear cloth.
   Note: It is especially applied to the cutting of wool from
         sheep or their skins, and the nap from cloth.
   2. To separate or sever with shears or a similar instrument;
      to cut off; to clip (something) from a surface; as, to
      shear a fleece.
            Before the golden tresses . . . were shorn away.
                                                  --Shak.
   3. To reap, as grain. [Scot.] --Jamieson.
   4. Fig.: To deprive of property; to fleece.
   5. (Mech.) To produce a change of shape in by a shear. See
      {Shear}, n., 4.
   

2. \Shear\, n. [AS. sceara. See {Shear}, v. t.]
   1. A pair of shears; -- now always used in the plural, but
      formerly also in the singular. See {Shears}.
            On his head came razor none, nor shear. --Chaucer.
            Short of the wool, and naked from the shear.
                                                  --Dryden.
   2. A shearing; -- used in designating the age of sheep.
            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.            --Youatt.
   3. (Engin.) An action, resulting from applied forces, which
      tends to cause two contiguous parts of a body to slide
      relatively to each other in a direction parallel to their
      plane of contact; -- also called {shearing stress}, and
      {tangential stress}.
   4. (Mech.) A strain, or change of shape, of an elastic body,
      consisting of an extension in one direction, an equal
      compression in a perpendicular direction, with an
      unchanged magnitude in the third direction.
   {Shear blade}, one of the blades of shears or a shearing
      machine.
   {Shear hulk}. See under {Hulk}.
   {Shear steel}, a steel suitable for shears, scythes, and
      other cutting instruments, prepared from fagots of
      blistered steel by repeated heating, rolling, and tilting,
      to increase its malleability and fineness of texture.
   

3. \Shear\, v. i.
   1. To deviate. See {Sheer}.
   2. (Engin.) To become more or less completely divided, as a
      body under the action of forces, by the sliding of two
      contiguous parts relatively to each other in a direction
      parallel to their plane of contact.