shorn

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Related to shorn: sheared

shorn

(shôrn)

A past participle of shear.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

shorn

(ʃɔːn)

a past participle of shear

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

shear

(ʃɪər)

v. sheared, sheared shorn, shear•ing, v.t.

1. to cut (something).

2. to remove by or as if by cutting or clipping: to shear wool from sheep.

3. to cut or clip the hair, fleece, wool, etc., from: to shear sheep.

4. to strip or deprive (usu. fol. by of): to shear someone of power.

5. to travel through by or as if by cutting: Chimney swifts sheared the air.

6. to subject (a solid body or structure) to shear.

v.i.

7. to cut or cut through something with a sharp instrument.

8. to break along an internal plane in response to a force parallel to the plane.

9. Chiefly Scot. to reap crops with a sickle.

10. Usu., shears. (sometimes used with a sing. v.)

a. scissors of large size (usu. used with pair of).

b. any of various other cutting implements or machines having two blades that suggest those of scissors.

11. one blade of a pair of large scissors.

12. the act or process of shearing or being sheared.

13. a shearing of sheep (used in stating the age of sheep): a sheep of one shear.

14. the quantity, esp. of wool or fleece, cut off at one shearing.

15. Usu., shears. (usu. with a pl. v.) a framework for hoisting heavy weights, consisting of two or more spars with their legs separated, fastened together near the top and steadied by guys, which support a tackle.

16. a machine for cutting rigid material by moving the edge of a blade through it.

17.

a. the tendency of a force applied to a solid body or structure, as a rock stratum, to cause deformation or rupture along a plane parallel to the force.

b. deformation produced in this manner.

[before 900; (v.) Middle English sheren, Old English sceran, c. Old Frisian skera, Old High German sceran, Old Norse skera; (n.) Middle English sheres (pl.); compare Old English scērero (pl.), scēar (feminine)]

shear′er, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Adj.

shorn - having the hair or wool cut or clipped off as if with shears or clippers; "picked up the baby's shorn curls from the floor"; "naked as a sheared sheep"

sheared

Translations

mocho

privo tagliato

shorn

[ˈʃɔː^rn]

pp of shear

adj
shorn of sth [+ power, protection] → dépouillé(e) de qch

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

shorn

ptp of shear

adj

to be shorn of something → einer Sache (gen) → entkleidet sein

sheep → geschoren; head → (kahl) geschoren; her shorn locks → ihr kurz geschorenes Haar

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

shorn

[ʃɔːn]

1. pp of shear

2. adj

a. (grass) → tosato/a; (head) → rasato/a

b. (fig) shorn of (power, glory) → privato/a di

References in classic literature ?

Would it not be better to remain at peace in your own house instead of roaming the world looking for better bread than ever came of wheat, never reflecting that many go for wool and come back shorn?"

View in context

But only some side alleys, with a cross, and the quarters to graze, being kept shorn, but not too near shorn.

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The tall masts are the pillars supporting the balanced planes that, motionless and silent, catch from the air the ship's motive-power, as it were a gift from Heaven vouchsafed to the audacity of man; and it is the ship's tall spars, stripped and shorn of their white glory, that incline themselves before the anger of the clouded heaven.

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Shorn by the frost with crystal blade, The dry leaves, scattered, fall at last; Among the valleys of Wu Chan Cold winds of death go wailing past.

View in context

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore, "Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven, Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore -- Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!" Quoth the raven "Nevermore."

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Then the ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore, "Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven, Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore-- Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!" Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

View in context

"Before these fields were shorn and till'd, Full to the brim our rivers flow'd; The melody of waters fill'd The fresh and boundless wood; And torrents dash'd, and rivulets play'd, And fountains spouted in the shade."--Bryant

He wore a hunting shirt of forest-green, fringed with faded yellow*, and a summer cap of skins which had been shorn of their fur.

View in context

'Our only consolation, Kit,' pursued the lawyer, looking at him in a sort of pensive abstraction, 'is, that although we cannot turn away the wind, we can soften it; we can temper it, if I may say so, to the shorn lambs.'