PAIR OF SHEARS, subs. phr. (old).—A striking likeness; little or no difference: e.g., ‘There’s a PAIR OF SHEARS’ = ‘They’re as like as two peas.’
1603. SHAKESPEARE, Measure for Measure, i. 2. There went but a PAIR OF SHEERS between us.
1623. FLETCHER and ROWLEY, The Maid of the Mill, v. 2. There went but A PAIR OF SHEARS and a bodkin between us.
1630. OVERBURY, Characters, ‘An Apparatour.’ There went but A PAIRE OF SHEERES betweene him and the pursivant of hell, for they both delight in sin.
1630. TAYLOR (‘The Water Poet’), Workes, i. 103.
| And some report, that both these Fowles haue seene | |
| Their like, that’s but A PAYRE OF SHEERES betweene. |
1633. ROWLEY, A Match at Midnight, ii. 1 [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED), vii. 367]. John. Why, that there goes but a PAIR OF SHEARS between a promoter and a knave.
See KNIGHT.
