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.
Gear, v. i. (Mach.) To be
in, or come into, gear.
Gear (?), n. [OE. gere,
ger, AS. gearwe clothing, adornment, armor, fr.
gearo, gearu, ready, yare; akin to OHG.
garawī, garwī 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, or out of,
gear (Mach.), to connect or disconnect
(wheelwork or couplings, etc.); to put in, or out of, working
relation.