shears n pl Cp OED shear sb1 4 'device used ... for raising heavy gear, consisting of two (or more) sloping poles fastened at top.'
1 Sloping poles on which nets are hung to dry; cp GALLOWS.
[1774] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 42 The nets which were on shore were put upon shears. [1776] ibid ii, 159 I went to the tickle and tried for fish, but could not catch any. Sheers were set up for the nets, and the snow thrown off them.
2 Heavy logs or 'shores' placed crosswise as support for elevated platform or 'flake' on which fish are dried.
P 269-64 ~ pieces of wood four inches in diameter upon which are set the beams when building a flake. They are crossed like an X, and set in the ground.
3 Stout timbers fastened under the bowsprit of a sealing vessel to support men pushing ice-pans to clear a passage for the ship (1972 SANGER 240); RAMS, shearstick.
1937 DEVINE 39 ~ Long sticks extending from the bow of a sealing vessel lashed under the bowsprit, to afford a footing to the sealers for poking pans of ice out of the ship's way.
4 Comb shearstick: see sense 3 above.
1924 ENGLAND 153 Shearsticks an' rams at de bows!
