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To cut, clip, or sever anything from with shears or a like instrument; as, to shear sheep; to shear cloth.

The act or operation of clipping with shears or a shearing machine, as the wool from sheep, or the nap from cloth.

A sheep but once sheared.

r instrument the blades of which are extensions of a curved spring, -- used for shearing sheep or skins.

A man employed in tending, feeding, and guarding sheep, esp. a flock grazing at large.

A woman who tends sheep; hence, a rural lass. She put herself into the garb of a shepherdess. Sir P. Sidney.

after the fleece is shorn off, as distinct from the morling, or skin taken from the dead sheep; also, a sheep of the first year's shearing. [Prov. Eng.]

An English breed of black-faced hornless sheep similar to the Southdown, but larger, now extensively raised in many parts of the world.

the body, whether green, dry, or tanned; especially, that of a small animal, as a calf, sheep, or goat.

An inferior quality of leather, made of split sheepskin, tanned by immersion in sumac, and dyed. It is used for hat linings, pocketbooks, bookbinding, etc.

Fine clay or ocher made up into balls, used for marking sheep. [Eng.] Woodsward.

for making tarts and acid drinks. (b) A troublesome weed (Rumex Acetosella), also called sheep sorrel. -- Salt of sorrel (Chem.), binoxalate of potassa; -- so called because obtained from the juice of Rumex Acetosella, or Rumex Axetosa. -- Sorrel tree (Bot.), a small ericaceous tree (Oxydendrum arboreum) whose leaves…

to the South Downs, a range of pasture hills south of the Thames, in England. Southdown sheep (Zoöl.), a celebrated breed of shortwooled, hornless sheep, highly valued on account of the delicacy of their flesh. So called from the South Downs where the breed originated.

olt. -- Spanish reef (Naut.), a knot tied in the head of a jib-headed sail. -- Spanish sheep (Zoöl.), a merino. -- Spanish white, an impalpable powder prepared from chalk by pulverizing and repeated washings, -- used as a white pigment. -- Spanish windlass (Naut.), a wooden roller, with a rope wound about it, into…

or pertaining to the Sparidæ, a family of spinous-finned fishes which includes the scup, sheepshead, and sea bream. -- n.

Chiefly Brit. dial. [MW10] In . . . his spence, or "pantry" were hung the carcasses of a sheep or ewe, and two cows lately slaughtered. Sir W. Scott. Bluff Harry broke into the spence, And turned the cowls adrift. Tennyson.

o rive; to cleave; as, to split a piece of timber or a board; to split a gem; to split a sheepskin. Cold winter split the rocks in twain. Dryden.

the bore of a cannon after a discharge. It consists of a cylinder of wood, covered with sheepskin with the wool on, or cloth with a heavy looped nap, and having a handle, or staff.

rinum) related to barley. In California the stiffly awned spiklets work into the wool of sheep, and into the throat, flesh, and eyes of animals, sometimes even producing death. -- Squirrel hake (Zoöl.), a common American hake (Phycis tenuis); -- called also white hake. -- Squirrel hawk (Zoöl.), any rough-legged hawk;…

A partial inclosure made by a wall or trees, to serve as a shelter for sheep or cattle. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.]