degear

English

Etymology

de- +‎ gear

Verb

degear (third-person singular simple present degears, present participle degearing, simple past and past participle degeared)

1. (finance) To reduce one's debt by selling off assets, especially those that were acquired with borrowed money.
   • 1978, The Bankers' Magazine:

     Rather the reverse, for Bank of Ireland managed to degear the fastest and at the same time push its profitability up second fastest.

   • 1982, High prices - Volume 2, page 6:

     It could use a lot of unused debt capacity in Huletts, which has degeared since the sale of its packaging and paper interests.

   • 1992, Financial Mail, page xix:

     The company it bought had previously been the subject of a leveraged buy-out and is now being restructured and degeared.

   • 2014, John Piper, Financial Cataclysm Now!, →ISBN:

     When uncertain the prudent man steps back, degears, and waits for better opportunities that is my message in a nutshell.

2. (accounting) To calculate the net value of assets after removing both debt and the projected cost of interest on borrowed capital.
   • 1993, Shipping Finance Annual, page 12:

     If the project is viable on this degeared basis, then leasing is compared in price with other forms of borrowing available.

   • 2009, Canadian Transportation Research Forum, Proceedings of the ... Annual Conference, page 567:

     It should be noted that there exists considerable debate surrounding the parameters used when determining the cost of equity with the CAPM. For example, the beta is often "degeared" in order to arrive at a pure asset beta, ...

   • 2012, Michael Ball, Colin Lizieri, Bryan MacGregor, The Economics of Commercial Property Markets, →ISBN, page 321:

     To remove gearing, a simple weighted average cost of capital model is used: R_pt= {R_et - (1 - P/E_t) R_dt}/(P/E_t) where R_pt, is the degeared return to the property portfolio; R_et is the observed equity return; R_dt is the return on debt (taken as the long bond yield); and P/E_t is the value of the property portfolio as a ratio of shareholder equity.

3. To remove one's gear (special equipment).
   • 1967, Mademoiselle: The Magazine for the Smart Young Woman:

     He may spot jump (aim for a specific target), or water jump (the most dangerous: one is given 15 seconds to degear while in the water), or jump with a partner.

   • 2011, Armitage Shanks, Straying off The Path, →ISBN, page 181:

     "All right." I said taking off my clown nose and getting my backpack back from Arlo. We degeared right in the thick of the crowd.

   • 2015, Jessica Clare, The Billionaire Takes a Bride, →ISBN:

     I need to de-gear.” She gestured at her skates.

4. To remove or disable the gears (transmission or interlocking gears).
   • 1951, General Electric Company, Test Manual: Instructions for Testing Electric Apparatus, page 407:

     If locomotive is to be shipped on its own wheels, remove motor brushes or have locomotive degeared, and set brake-cylinder safety valve at from 25 to 30 lb opening pressure, tagging the valve with the opening pressure, and open the dead-engine cock.

   • 2015, Peter Dye -, The Bridge to Airpower, →ISBN:

     In light of the problems experienced with the type 8B, the Ministry of Munitions' Progress and Allocation Committee (chaired personally by Sir William Weir) expressed early interest in acquiring examples of the degeared engine.

   • 2015, Jane Duncan, My Friend Sashie, →ISBN:

     This childhood of mine had caused me to grow up with a dislike of forms, conventions, habits, routines and all the modes of life that encouraged the mind to slip out of gear and idle like a degeared engine, while the body lived through its days and nights automatically.

Alternative forms

• de-gear

Anagrams

• Gedera, agreed, dragee, dragée, e-grade, geared, gradee