shear

So trenchant was the Templar’s weapon, that it shore asunder, as it had been a willow twig, the tough and plaited handle of the mace, which the ill-fated Saxon reared to parry the blow, and, descending on his head, levelled him with the earth.

shear the llamas

shear the afro off someone's head

The total along-the-runway wind component sheared from an 8-knot headwind to about a 56-knot tailwind over a 44-second period.

Soon as the bending Scythe,

And Sickle keen, have shear'd the golden Grain,

Array'd in all the Equipage of Death,

Forth the stern Sportsman stalks