Word.ws English Dictionary

sheerlegs

sheerlegs is the alternative spelling of shear legs.

Meaning of shear legs

Noun

shear legs (uncountable)

  1. A form of derrick, consisting of three poles and a block and tackle, used to hoist and lower heavy weights, especially the masts of sailing ships.
    • Apart from its unique public viewing gallery, the depot features 40-ton capacity shear legs which will be complemented shortly by an overhead lifting crane.1979 August, Michael Harris, “A line for all reasons: the North Yorkshire Moors Railway”, in Railway World, pages 412, 414
    Synonyms:
    sheers

Questions about sheerlegs

What is sheerlegs the alternative spelling of?
Sheerlegs is the alternative spelling of shear legs.

Words near sheerlegs in the dictionary

  1. Sheerins
  2. Sheerio
  3. Sheerios
  4. sheerish
  5. sheerleg
  6. sheerlegs
  7. sheerly
  8. sheermal
  9. sheerness
  10. Sheerness-on-Sea
  11. sheernesses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sheerlegs (page history and authors); shear legs (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “sheerlegs.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sheerlegs. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.