saw vs shearing

saw

noun
  • A tool with a toothed blade used for cutting hard substances, in particular wood or metal. 

  • Such a tool with an abrasive coating instead of teeth. 

  • A sawtooth wave. 

  • A musical saw. 

verb
  • To make a motion back and forth similar to cutting something with a saw. 

  • To be cut with a saw. 

  • simple past tense of see 

  • To form or produce (something) by cutting with a saw. 

  • To cut (something) with a saw. 

shearing

noun
  • The process of preparing shear steel; tilting. 

  • Deformation by forces acting in opposite directions. 

  • The process of making a vertical side cutting in working into a face of coal. 

  • The act or operation of reaping. 

  • The act or operation of clipping with shears or a shearing machine, as the wool from sheep, or the nap from cloth. 

  • The material cut off in this way. 

  • The act or operation of dividing with shears. 

adj
  • Tending to cut or tear. 

How often have the words saw and shearing occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )