Literary notes about shear (AI summary)
The word "shear" is portrayed with remarkable versatility in literature, functioning both as a literal term and a potent metaphor. In its most tangible sense, it depicts the act of cutting, as when one shears wool from sheep ([1], [2], [3], [4]) or when machines shear with precision ([5]). Beyond the physical, it acquires a symbolic power—conveying notions of abrupt severance or transformation, as seen when a blade seemingly shears through life ([6]) or when decisive moments are marked by a clean, final cut ([7]). Additionally, technical and structural contexts invoke "shear" to describe forces that induce sliding or failure in materials ([8], [9], [10], [11]), highlighting the term’s breadth and capacity to bridge the practical with the poetic.
- I eat my own lamb, My own chicken and ham, I shear my own sheep and I wear it.
— from The American Country Girl by Martha Foote Crow - I had to shear, gather the wool, sort it and pack it up.
— from Argentina from a British Point of View, and Notes on Argentine Life - At that time Laban was gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole away her father's idols.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - "Oh, I know," shouted Bobby, jumping up and down; "you are going to shear the sheep."
— from Bobby of Cloverfield Farm by Helen Fuller Orton - It requires less skill to shear with a machine shear, and it does the work more uniformly.
— from Practical Angora Goat Raising - I shrieked as I saw it shear through the throat; whilst at the same moment Mr. Morris’s bowie knife plunged into the heart.
— from Dracula by Bram Stoker - And now mark, in the Place de la Revolution, what other August Statue may this be; veiled in canvas,—which swiftly we shear off by pulley and cord?
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - at max. ld., per square inch No. of tests Per cent of moisture Shear strength per square inch Inches Lbs.
— from The Mechanical Properties of Wood Including a Discussion of the Factors Affecting the Mechanical Properties, and Methods of Timber Testing by Samuel J. (Samuel James) Record - Briefly stated, the common method is to assume each shear member as taking the horizontal shear occurring in the space from member to member.
— from Some Mooted Questions in Reinforced Concrete Design American Society of Civil Engineers, Transactions, Paper No. 1169, Volume LXX, Dec. 1910 by Edward Godfrey - The vertical shear, J , is carried mainly by the concrete above the neutral surface, very little of it being carried by the steel reinforcement.
— from Some Mooted Questions in Reinforced Concrete Design American Society of Civil Engineers, Transactions, Paper No. 1169, Volume LXX, Dec. 1910 by Edward Godfrey - This longitudinal shear is maximum at the neutral plane and decreases toward the upper and lower surfaces.
— from The Mechanical Properties of Wood Including a Discussion of the Factors Affecting the Mechanical Properties, and Methods of Timber Testing by Samuel J. (Samuel James) Record
