Shorn means having had hair, wool, or another covering cut or shaved off. When sheep are shorn in the spring, farmers use special clippers to remove their thick wool coats, leaving the animals looking smaller and much cooler for summer.

You might read about a character with a shorn head after getting a buzz cut, or see pictures of shorn sheep looking almost unrecognizable without their fluffy wool. The word can describe anything stripped of its natural covering: trees shorn of their branches after a storm, or a lawn shorn close to the ground by a mower.

The word often suggests a dramatic change in appearance. When you see someone shorn of their long hair, they look completely different. Sometimes people use shorn to describe being stripped of more than just a physical covering: a person might be shorn of their dignity or power, meaning those things have been taken away, leaving them diminished or vulnerable.