tear
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
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.
Inflected forms:
form: tears
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: tearing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: tore
pos: verb
tags: past
form: torn
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: tore
pos: verb
tags: colloquial
nonstandard
participle
past
form: tears
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He tore his coat on the nail.
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.
gloss: To injure as if by pulling apart.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He tore some muscles in a weight-lifting accident.
gloss: To destroy or reduce abstract unity or coherence, such as social, political or emotional.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He was torn by conflicting emotions.
gloss: To make (an opening) with force or energy.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: A piece of debris tore a tiny straight channel through the satellite.
His boss will tear him a new one when he finds out.
The artillery tore a gap in the line.
gloss: To remove by tearing, or with sudden great force.
pos: verb
tags: often
transitive
examples: Tear the coupon out of the newspaper.
[A] surge of muddy water tore him free from his sandy nook and tumbled him down the gully.
gloss: To demolish.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
with-down
examples: The slums were torn down to make way for the new development.
gloss: To become torn, especially accidentally.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: My dress has torn.
gloss: To move or act with great speed, energy, or violence.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: He went tearing down the hill at 90 miles per hour.
The tornado lingered, tearing through town, leaving nothing upright.
He tore into the backlog of complaints.
I waited to hear no more, but tore up the village to find Poirot.
I've been tearing around in my fucking nightgown. 24/7 Sylvia Plath.
gloss: To smash or enter something with great force.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The chain shot tore into the approaching line of infantry.
gloss: To be interrupted midway through.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: torn write
gloss: A hole or break caused by tearing.
pos: noun
examples: A small tear is easy to mend, if it is on the seam.
gloss: A rampage.
pos: noun
tags: slang
examples: to go on a tear
Derived words: betear
retear
rip-and-tear
tearable
tearabout
tear a cat
tear along
tear apart
tear-ass
tear ass
tear a strip off someone
tear at
tear away
tearaway
tear-cat
tear down
tearer
tear into
tear it up
tear-mouth
tear off
tear one's hair
tear one's hair out
tear out
tearproof
tear someone a new asshole
tear someone a new one
tearstrip
tear-throat
tearthumb
tear to pieces
tear to shreds
tear up
that's torn it
that tears it
torn write
totear
uptear
war torn
hot tear
Mallory-Weiss tear
microtear
on a tear
tear and wear
teardown
tear-off
tear resistance
tear sheet
tear-up
wear and tear
tearsheet
tear line
Translations: