shear vs cut back

shear is a noun but cut back is not a noun.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
shear	Yes	No	Yes	No
cut back	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, cut back is a hypernym of shear; that is, cut back is a word with a broader meaning than shear:

Other hypernyms of shear include clip, crop, dress, lop, prune, snip, trim.

shear (noun)	cut back (noun)
a large edge tool that cuts sheet metal by passing a blade through it
(physics) a deformation of an object in which parallel planes remain parallel but are shifted in a direction parallel to themselves

shear (verb)	cut back (verb)
become deformed by forces tending to produce a shearing strain	place restrictions on
cut with shears	cut down on; make a reduction in
cut or cut through with shears	cultivate, tend, and cut back the growth of
shear the wool from	return in time