Cut or trimmed something with shears or scissors, or broke or bent something under pressure; past tense of shear.
From Old English sceran, related to German scheren (to cut). The word has Germanic roots going back thousands of years. It historically referred to cutting wool from sheep, and evolved to mean any cutting or separating action, including cutting under stress (shear force in physics).
The word 'shear' in physics describes a type of stress that slides layers apart—engineers worry about shear forces in bridges and buildings because shearing failure happens suddenly and catastrophically, unlike other types of breaks.
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