🇫🇷French Source WordCode: FR

tondre

Pronunciation / Transliteration: tondre

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
shear/ʃɪər/
nounverbCEFR B2 (Upper)Top #3500 frequency
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🇫🇷 Example Sentence in French:

"Les fermiers tondent leurs moutons une fois par an."

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

6 senses
As noun
  1. 1

    The act or an instance of cutting the wool off a sheep or other animal.

    "The annual shear of the sheep produced a large quantity of wool."
  2. 2

    A strain, stress, or deformation that occurs when parallel forces act in opposite directions.

    "The bridge was designed to withstand significant shear forces."
  3. 3

    A large pair of scissors or other cutting implement, often used in the plural 'shears'.

    "He used a pair of garden shears to trim the hedge."
As verb
  1. 1

    To cut the wool off (a sheep or other animal).

    "Farmers shear their sheep once a year."
  2. 2

    To cut off (hair, wool, etc.) with shears or a similar implement.

    "She sheared off her long hair, donating it to charity."
  3. 3

    To break off or cause to break off due to a shearing force.

    "The bolt sheared under the immense pressure, causing the structure to collapse."

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Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

From Old English 'sceran' (verb) 'to cut, shear, shave,' from Proto-Germanic '*skeran' (source also of Old Norse 'skera', Old Frisian 'skera', Middle Dutch 'sceren', Dutch 'scheren', Old High German 'skeran', German 'scheren' 'to shear'), from PIE root '*sker-' 'to cut.' The noun sense is from the verb.

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