tear
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: târ
ipa: /tɛə/
ipa: /tɛː/
enpr: târ
ipa: /tɛɹ/
ipa: /teː/
note: New Zealand, cheer–chair merger
ipa: /tiə/
note: without the cheer–chair merger
ipa: /teə/
ipa: /teɹ/
note: Lancashire, fair–fur merger
ipa: /tɜː(ɹ)/
homophone: tare
rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
Forms: form: tears
form: tearing
form: tore
form: torn
form: tore
Etymology: From Middle English teren, from Old English teran (“to tear, lacerate”), from Proto-Germanic *teraną (“to tear, tear apart, rip”), from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to tear, tear apart”).
Cognate with Scots tere, teir, tair (“to rend, lacerate, wound, rip, tear out”), Dutch teren (“to eliminate, efface, live, survive by consumption”), German zehren (“to consume, misuse”), German zerren (“to tug, rip, tear”), Danish tære (“to consume”), Swedish tära (“to fret, consume, deplete, use up”), Icelandic tæra (“to clear, corrode”). Outside Germanic, cognate to Ancient Greek δέρω (dérō, “to skin”), Albanian ther (“to slay, skin, pierce”). Doublet of tire.
Senses: examples: text: He tore his coat on the nail.
ref: 1886, Gustave Flaubert, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Madame Bovary, published 1856, Part III Chapter XI:
text: Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.
He suffered, poor man, at seeing her so badly dressed, with laceless boots, and the arm-holes of her pinafore torn down to the hips; for the charwoman took no care of her.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
glosses: To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
examples: text: He tore some muscles in a weight-lifting accident.
glosses: To injure as if by pulling apart.
examples: text: He was torn by conflicting emotions.
glosses: To destroy or reduce abstract unity or coherence, such as social, political or emotional.
examples: text: A piece of debris tore a tiny straight channel through the satellite.
text: His boss will tear him a new one when he finds out.
text: The artillery tore a gap in the line.
glosses: To make (an opening) with force or energy.
examples: text: Tear the coupon out of the newspaper.
text: [A] surge of muddy water tore him free from his sandy nook and tumbled him down the gully.
ref: 2012, Max Overton, Horemheb:
glosses: To remove by tearing, or with sudden great force.
raw_tags: with off or out
examples: text: The slums were torn down to make way for the new development.
glosses: To demolish.
raw_tags: of structures
examples: text: My dress has torn.
glosses: To become torn, especially accidentally.
examples: text: He went tearing down the hill at 90 miles per hour.
text: The tornado lingered, tearing through town, leaving nothing upright.
text: He tore into the backlog of complaints.
text: I waited to hear no more, but tore up the village to find Poirot.
ref: 1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 133:
text: I've been tearing around in my fucking nightgown. 24/7 Sylvia Plath.
ref: 2019, Lana Del Rey, Hope Is a Dangerous Thing:
glosses: To move or act with great speed, energy, or violence.
examples: text: The chain shot tore into the approaching line of infantry.
glosses: To smash or enter something with great force.
examples: text: torn write
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To be interrupted midway through.
Synonyms: sense: break
word: rend
sense: break
word: rip
sense: remove by tearing
word: rip out
sense: remove by tearing
word: tear off
sense: remove by tearing
word: tear out
Derived terms: sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: retear
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: rip-and-tear
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear a cat
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear along
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear apart
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear-ass
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear ass
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear a strip off someone
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear at
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear away
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear-cat
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear down
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear into
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear it up
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear-mouth
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear off
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear one's hair
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear one's hair out
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear out
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear someone a new asshole
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear someone a new one
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear-throat
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear to pieces
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: tear up
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: that's torn it
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: that tears it
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: torn write
sense: terms derived from tear (verb)
word: war torn