shears

pl. [SHEAR, 8.] but on a larger scale and somewhat differently 1. A cutting-instrument, operating like sci ors, shaped. In one variety the edges of the blades are beveled, and the handles adapted for thumb and fingers respectively, instead of being duplicates. They are adapted for tailors' use. Tinmen's shears have relatively shorter jaws, and are either grasped in the hand, or one leg placed in the vise while other is worked by hand. They are used for cut ting tin-plate and sheet-metal of moderate thickne . The shears used by farriers, sheep-shearers, weavers, ., are made of a single piece of steel bent round until the blades meet, which themselves by the elasticity of the metal. Garden shears and gra shears have long wooden handles to which the blades are attached at an angle of about 45°. 2. The ways or track of a lathe upon which the lathe-head, puppet-head, and rest are placed, and on which the latter is adjusted in the common lathe or slides in the traversing lathe. *3. The same as SHEERS (q. v.). *4. A wing. (Spenser: F.Q., II. viii. 5.)