(transitive) To cut using, or as if using, scissors.
- 1829, uncredited author, “Letters from London,” No. VIII, The Edinburgh Literary Journal, Volume I, Number 19, 21 March, 1829, p. 267,
[The poem] “All for Love” […] was originally intended for the Keepsake—the Editor of which Annual proposed to have it scissored down into genteel dimensions, which the Laureate refused to do […]
(transitive) To excise or expunge something from a text.
- The erroneous testimony was scissored from the record.
(transitive, obsolete) To reproduce (text) as an excerpt, copy.
- 1832, Review of The Etymological Encyclopœdia by D. J. Browne, The New-England Magazine, Volume 3, September, 1832, p. 256,
The public are no longer excluded from the beauties of Science, if there is any virtue in 257 pages of etymology, scissored from “the best authorities.”
- 1881, advertisement for Pattison’s Missouri Digest, 1873, published in The Texas Reports: Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court, Volume 3, Austin: Gammel-Statesman Publishing,
This Digest is the result of a careful reading of every case, and not a mere scissoring of head notes, as is so often done by digesters.
(transitive, intransitive) To move something like a pair of scissors, especially the legs.
- The runner scissored over the hurdles.
- 1938, Raymond Chandler, “The King in Yellow,” Part Three, in The Simple Art of Murder, Houghton Mifflin, 1950,
She lay on her side on the floor under the bed, long legs scissored out as if in running.
(intransitive, sex) To engage in scissoring (tribadism), a sexual act in which two women intertwine their legs and rub their vulvas against each other.
(skating) To skate with one foot significantly in front of the other.