Word.ws English Dictionary

fortear

fortear verb: to tear up; tear to pieces.

Verb

fortear (third-person singular simple present fortears, present participle fortearing, simple past fortore, past participle fortorn)

  1. (transitive) To tear up; tear to pieces.
    • A German hussar, a veteran in the wars of Germany, appeared at the door of Congress, in Philadelphia, in his uniform and on horseback, with a fortorn cap upon his head, [...]1842, Royal Ralph Hinman, A Historical Collection from Official Records, Files, &c., of the Part Sustained by Connecticut, During the War of the Revolution: With an Appendix, Containing Important...
    • It was as if an earthquake rent, And made fortorn The households horn Of peace on earth, [...]1882, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The poetical works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Forms of fortear

third-person singular presentfortears
present participlefortearing
pastfortore
past participlefortorn

Origin of fortear

From Middle English forteren, possibly from Old English *forteran, from Proto-West Germanic *frateran (“to tear up”). By surface analysis, for- (“up, completely”) + tear. Cognate with Dutch verteren (“to devour”), German Low German vertehren (“to consume”), German verzehren (“to consume”).

Questions about fortear

What does fortear mean?
Fortear means to tear up; tear to pieces.
What part of speech is fortear?
Fortear is a verb.
What is the past tense of fortear?
The past tense of fortear is fortore.

Words near fortear in the dictionary

  1. forteaches
  2. forteaching
  3. fortean
  4. Forteana
  5. forteans
  6. fortear
  7. Forteau
  8. fortecortin
  9. forted
  10. Forten
  11. Fortenberry

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fortear (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “fortear.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fortear. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.