7. (Mining) The process of making a vertical side cutting in working
into a face of coal.
Shearing machine. (a) A machine with blades, or rotary disks, for
dividing plates or bars of metal. (b) A machine for shearing cloth.
Shear"ling (?), n. A sheep but once sheared.
Shear"man (?), n.; pl. Shearmen (&?;). One whose occupation is to shear
cloth.
Shearn (?), n. [AS. scearn. Cf. Scarn.] Dung; excrement. [Obs.]
[Written also shern.] Holland.
Shears (?), n. pl. [Formerly used also in the singular. See Shear, n.,
1.] 1. A cutting instrument. Specifically: (a) An instrument consisting
of two blades, commonly with bevel edges, connected by a pivot, and
working on both sides of the material to be cut, -- used for cutting
cloth and other substances.
Fate urged the shears, and cut the sylph in twain.
Pope.
(b) A similar instrument the blades of which are extensions of a curved
spring, -- used for shearing sheep or skins. (c) A shearing machine; a
blade, or a set of blades, working against a resisting edge.
2. Anything in the form of shears. Specifically: (a) A pair of wings.
[Obs.] Spenser. (b) An apparatus for raising heavy weights, and
especially for stepping and unstepping the lower masts of ships. It
consists of two or more spars or pieces of timber, fastened together
near the top, steadied by a guy or guys, and furnished with the
necessary tackle. [Written also sheers.]
3. (Mach.) The bedpiece of a machine tool, upon which a table or slide
rest is secured; as, the shears of a lathe or planer. See Illust. under
Lathe.
Rotary shears. See under Rotary.
Shear"tail` (?), n. (Zoöl.) (a) The common tern. (b) Any one of several
species of humming birds of the genus Thaumastura having a long forked
tail.
Shear"wa`ter (?), n. [Shear + water; cf. G. wassersherer; -- so called
from its running lightly along the surface of the water.] (Zoöl.) Any
one of numerous species of long-winged oceanic birds of the genus
Puffinus and related genera. They are allied to the petrels, but are
larger. The Manx shearwater (P. Anglorum), the dusky shearwater (P.
obscurus), and the greater shearwater (P. major), are well-known
species of the North Atlantic. See Hagdon.
Sheat"fish` (?), n. [Cf. dial. G. scheid, schaid, schaiden.] (Zoöl.) A
European siluroid fish (Silurus glanis) allied to the cat-fishes. It is
the largest fresh-water fish of Europe, sometimes becoming six feet or
more in length. See Siluroid.
Sheath (?), n. [OE. schethe, AS. scð, sceáð, scð; akin to OS. skðia, D.
scheede, G. scheide, OHG. sceida, Sw. skida, Dan. skede, Icel. skeiðir,
pl., and to E. shed, v.t., originally meaning, to separate, to part.
See Shed.] 1. A case for the reception of a sword, hunting knife, or
other long and slender instrument; a scabbard.
The dead knight's sword out of his sheath he drew.
Spenser.
2. Any sheathlike covering, organ, or part. Specifically: (a) (Bot.)
The base of a leaf when sheathing or investing a stem or branch, as in
grasses. (b) (Zoöl.) One of the elytra of an insect.
Medullary sheath. (Anat.) See under Medullary. -- Primitive sheath.
(Anat.) See Neurilemma. -- Sheath knife, a knife with a fixed blade,
carried in a sheath. -- Sheath of Schwann. (Anat.) See Schwann's
sheath.
Sheath"bill` (?), n. (Zoöl.) Either one of two species of birds
composing the genus Chionis, and family Chionidæ, native of the islands
of the Antarctic seas.
They are related to the gulls and the plovers, but more nearly to the
latter. The base of the bill is covered with a saddle- shaped horny
sheath, and the toes are only slightly webbed. The plumage of both
species is white.
Sheathe (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sheathed (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Sheating.] [Written also sheath.] 1. To put into a sheath, case, or
scabbard; to inclose or cover with, or as with, a sheath or case.
The leopard . . . keeps the claws of his fore feet turned up from
the ground, and sheathed in the skin of his toes.
Grew.
'T is in my breast she sheathes her dagger now.
Dryden.