'Shear hulk' definitions:

Definition of 'Shear hulk'

From: GCIDE
  • Hulk \Hulk\, n. [OE. hulke a heavy ship, AS. hulc a light, swift ship; akin to D. hulk a ship of burden, G. holk, OHG. holcho; perh. fr. LL. holcas, Gr. ?, prop., a ship which is towed, fr. ? to draw, drag, tow. Cf. Wolf, Holcad.]
  • 1. The body of a ship or decked vessel of any kind; esp., the body of an old vessel laid by as unfit for service. "Some well-timbered hulk." --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. A heavy ship of clumsy build. --Skeat. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. Anything bulky or unwieldly. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • Shear hulk, an old ship fitted with an apparatus to fix or take out the masts of a ship.
  • The hulks, old or dismasted ships, formerly used as prisons. [Eng.] --Dickens. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Shear hulk'

From: GCIDE
  • Shear \Shear\, n. [AS. sceara. See Shear, v. t.]
  • 1. A pair of shears; -- now always used in the plural, but formerly also in the singular. See Shears. [1913 Webster]
  • On his head came razor none, nor shear. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
  • Short of the wool, and naked from the shear. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. A shearing; -- used in designating the age of sheep. [1913 Webster]
  • After the second shearing, he is a two-shear ram; . . . at the expiration of another year, he is a three-shear ram; the name always taking its date from the time of shearing. --Youatt. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. (Engin.) An action, resulting from applied forces, which tends to cause two contiguous parts of a body to slide relatively to each other in a direction parallel to their plane of contact; -- also called shearing stress, and tangential stress. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. (Mech.) A strain, or change of shape, of an elastic body, consisting of an extension in one direction, an equal compression in a perpendicular direction, with an unchanged magnitude in the third direction. [1913 Webster]
  • Shear blade, one of the blades of shears or a shearing machine.
  • Shear hulk. See under Hulk.
  • Shear steel, a steel suitable for shears, scythes, and other cutting instruments, prepared from fagots of blistered steel by repeated heating, rolling, and tilting, to increase its malleability and fineness of texture. [1913 Webster]