shear off

phrasal verb

sheared off; sheared off or shorn off; shearing off; shears off

1

: to become separated suddenly because of great force

The excess weight caused the bolt to shear off.

2

: to remove (something) with great force

The impact of the crash sheared off the airplane's wing.

Examples of shear off in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Just for the record, Patrick Mahomes didn’t get his iconic mohawk sheared off to purge that 40-22 drubbing by the Eagles in Super Bowl LIX. —Vahe Gregorian, Kansas City Star, 23 May 2025

Within seconds, the 230-foot, 356-ton plane broke apart in midair, the nose cone shearing off like the lid of a tin can. —Henry Leutwyler Robert Petkoff Emma Kehlbeck Quinton Kamara, New York Times, 20 May 2025

Banner’s car struck the middle of the trailer, with the collision shearing off the top of the car and killing him. —News Service Of Florida, Sun Sentinel, 26 Feb. 2025

A day after a jetliner flipped moments after landing in Toronto, what was left of the aircraft remained upside down on Tuesday, its right wing and tail sheared off and the wreckage blocking the two longest runways at Canada’s busiest airport. —Vjosa Isai, New York Times, 18 Feb. 2025

Rhymes for shear off

• ashraf
• checkoff
• cutoff
• falloff
• handoff
• kickoff
• layoff
• liftoff
• markoff
• markov
• payoff
• playoff