sheepshearing

American  

[sheep-sheer-ing] / ˈʃipˌʃɪər ɪŋ /

noun

1. an act or instance of shearing sheep.

2. the time or season of shearing sheep.

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sheepshearing British  

/ ˈʃiːpˌʃɪərɪŋ /

noun

1. the act or process of shearing sheep

2. the season or an occasion of shearing sheep

3. a feast held on such an occasion

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Other Word Forms

• sheepshearer noun

Etymology

Origin of sheepshearing

1580–90; sheep + shear ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

At Te Kuiti High School, he was a reluctant student given to taking time off to help his father with sheepshearing and other tasks.

From New York Times • Aug. 22, 2017

Loopy, lovely and almost impossibly good-humored, it whisks kids and their caregivers away to Bohemia and plunks them down in the midst of a sheepshearing festival.

From New York Times • Apr. 24, 2017

Their largely rural life — the barefoot kids, the sheepshearing, the vegetarian cooking — was filled with a great deal of what seems like genuine and dog-hair-covered happiness.

From New York Times • May 5, 2016

The sheepshearing scenes — despite the comic talents of Adam Green, Dominic Cuskern and Steve Cuiffo — seem studied rather than rollicking.

From New York Times • Feb. 22, 2015

We noticed that it was sheepshearing time at his place, and many sheep were in the act of losing their winter covering.

From The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour Through Ireland by McDougall, Margaret Moran Dixon