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GEAR (connected with " garb," properly elegance, fashion, especially of dress, and with " gar," to cause to do, only found in Scottish and northern dialects; the root of the word is seen in the Old Tent. garwjan, to make ready)
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GEAR (connected with " garb," properly elegance, fashion, especially of dress, and with " gar," to cause to do, only found in Scottish and northern dialects; the root of the word is seen in the Old Tent. garwjan, to make ready), an outfit, applied to the wearing apparel of a person, or to the harness and trappings of a horse or any draft animal, as riding-gear, hunting-gear, &c.; also to household goods or stuff. The phrase " out of gear," though now connected with the mechanical application of the word, was originally used to signify " out of harness " or condition, not ready to work, not fit. The word is also used of apparasus generally, and especially of the parts collectively in a machine by which motion is transmitted from one part to another by a series of cog-wheels, continuous bands, &c. It is used in a special sense in reference to a bicycle, meaning the diameter of an imaginary wheel, the circumference of which is equal to the distance accomplished by one revolution of the pedals (see BICYCLE).