Gear (?), n. [OE. gere, ger, AS. gearwe clothing, adornment, armor, fr. gearo, gearu, ready, yare; akin to OHG. garawi, garwi ornament, dress. See Yare, and cf. Garb dress.]
1.
Clothing; garments; ornaments.
Array thyself in thy most gorgeous gear.
Spenser.
2.
Goods; property; household stuff.
Chaucer.
Homely gear and common ware.
Robynson (More's Utopia)
3.
Whatever is prepared for use or wear; manufactured stuff or material.
Clad in a vesture of unknown gear.
Spenser.
4.
The harness of horses or cattle; trapping.
5.
Warlike accouterments.
[Scot.]
Jamieson.
6.
Manner; custom; behavior.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.
7.
Business matters; affairs; concern.
[Obs.]
Thus go they both together to their gear.
Spenser.
8. Mech. (a)
A toothed wheel, or cogwheel; as, a spur gear, or a bevel gear; also, toothed wheels, collectively.
(b)
An apparatus for performing a special function; gearing; as, the feed gear of a lathe.
(c)
Engagement of parts with each other; as, in gear; out of gear.
9. pl. Naut.
See 1st Jeer (b).
10.
Anything worthless; stuff; nonsense; rubbish.
[Obs. or Prov. Eng.]
Wright.
That servant of his that confessed and uttered this gear was an honest man.
Latimer.
Bever gear. See Bevel gear. -- Core gear, a mortise gear, or its skeleton. See Mortise wheel, under Mortise. -- Expansion gear Steam Engine, the arrangement of parts for cutting off steam at a certain part of the stroke, so as to leave it to act upon the piston expansively; the cut-off. See under Expansion. -- Feed gear. See Feed motion, under Feed, n. -- Gear cutter, a machine or tool for forming the teeth of gear wheels by cutting. -- Gear wheel, any cogwheel. -- Running gear. See under Running. -- To throw in, ∨ out of, gear Mach., to connect or disconnect (wheelwork or couplings, etc.); to put in, or out of, working relation.
© Webster 1913.
Gear (?) v. t. [imp. & p. p. Geared (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Gearing.]
1.
To dress; to put gear on; to harness.
2. Mach.
To provide with gearing.
Double geared, driven through twofold compound gearing, to increase the force or speed; -- said of a machine.
© Webster 1913.
Gear, v. i. Mach.
To be in, or come into, gear.
© Webster 1913.