scissor
verb
- cutting with scissors
- move back and forth, like scissors
noun
- hand-operated tool for cutting
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈsɪzə/ / /ˈsɪzɚ/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English cysour, cysoure, cysowre, altered from sisours (“scissors”), from Old French cisoires, cisours, cisur, from Latin caedere (“to cut”); current spelling influenced by Latin scindere, scissus (“to split”).
- Attributive form of scissors.
“I had clipped out the photo, feeling pathetic about the act from the moment I slipped my thumb into the scissor hole.”
“The records of the Cutlers’ Company of London (1624) refer to scissor-making in the city, although the quality of English-made scissors did not match that of continental scissors for another 100 years. A few English firms of scissor-makers, notably those of Beach, Macklin and Neesham, established a small but notable industry at Salisbury, Wilts, from the mid-17th century until the early 20th.”
- One blade on a pair of scissors.
- Scissors.
- Used in certain noun phrases to denote a thing resembling the action of scissors, as scissor kick, scissor hold (wrestling), scissor jack.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English cysour, cysoure, cysowre, altered from sisours (“scissors”), from Old French cisoires, cisours, cisur, from Latin caedere (“to cut”); current spelling influenced by Latin scindere, scissus (“to split”).
- To cut using, or as if using, scissors.
“[…] let me know, Why mine owne Barber is unblest, with him My poore Chinne too, for tis not Cizard iust To such a Favorites glasse […]”
“1829, uncredited author, “Letters from London,” No. VIII, The Edinburgh Literary Journal, Volume I, Number 19, 21 March, 1829, p. 267, [The poem] “All for Love” […] was originally intended for the Keepsake—the Editor of which Annual proposed to have it scissored down into genteel dimensions, which the Laureate refused to do […]”
- To excise or expunge something from a text.
“The erroneous testimony was scissored from the record.”
“The next line and a half had been scissored out by the censor.”
- To reproduce (text) as an excerpt, copy.
“1832, Review of The Etymological Encyclopœdia by D. J. Browne, The New-England Magazine, Volume 3, September, 1832, p. 256, The public are no longer excluded from the beauties of Science, if there is any virtue in 257 pages of etymology, scissored from “the best authorities.””
“1881, advertisement for Pattison’s Missouri Digest, 1873, published in The Texas Reports: Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court, Volume 3, Austin: Gammel-Statesman Publishing, This Digest is the result of a careful reading of every case, and not a mere scissoring of head notes, as is so often done by digesters.”
- To move something like a pair of scissors, especially the legs.
“The runner scissored over the hurdles.”
“1938, Raymond Chandler, “The King in Yellow,” Part Three, in The Simple Art of Murder, Houghton Mifflin, 1950, She lay on her side on the floor under the bed, long legs scissored out as if in running.”
- To engage in scissoring (tribadism), a sexual act in which two women intertwine their legs and rub their vulvas against each other.
- To skate with one foot significantly in front of the other.