n. A state of preparation or fitness; a suitable or fitting condition: as, to be out of gear; to bring anything into gear.n. Whatever is prepared for use or wear; manufactured stuff or material; hence, habit; dress; ornaments; armor.n. Any special set of things forming essential parts or appurtenances, or utilized for or connected with some special act, occupation, etc.: as, hunting-gear.n. Naut.. the ropes, blocks, etc., belonging to any particular sail or spar: as, the mainsail-gear, the foretop-mast-gear.n. In machinery, the appliances or furnishings connected with the acting parts of any piece of mechanism: as, expansion-gear, valve-gear. More particularly— Toothed wheels collectively. The connection of toothed wheels with each other; gearing: as, to throw machinery into or out of gear.n. A coal-miners' set of tools.n. plural In coal-mining, staging and rails for shipping coal on wharves.n. Goods; property in general.n. A matter; an affair; affairs collectively.n. Ordinary manner; behavior; custom; practice.To put into gear; prepare for operation; fit with gear or gearing: as, to gear up a wagon; to gear a machine or an engine.In machinery, to fit into another part, as one part of gearing into another. See gearing.n. The diameter of an imaginary wheel whose circumference is equal to the distance traversed by a safety-bicycle during a single revolution of the pedals: as, a 72-inch gear.n. A toothed wheel in which the axial lines of any one tooth are made up of two helical lines of equal pitch, one right-handed and one left-handed, which meet at the center of the face or breadth of the toothed surface. Such gears are called herring-bone gears, from the V-shape which each tooth receives. In this latter form they can only be used when the shafts are parallel.