Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use tear in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Tear means to rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate. Example: “He tore his coat on the nail.”

Examples of tear by meaning

verbTo rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to...

  • He tore his coat on the nail.

verbTo injure as if by pulling apart.

  • He tore some muscles in a weight-lifting accident.

verbTo destroy or reduce abstract unity or coherence, such as social, political or emotional.

  • He was torn by conflicting emotions.

verbTo make (an opening) with force or energy.

  • 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.

verbTo remove by tearing, or with sudden great force.

  • Tear the coupon out of the newspaper.

verbTo demolish.

  • The slums were torn down to make way for the new development.

verbTo become torn, especially accidentally.

  • My dress has torn.

verbTo move or act with great speed, energy, or violence.

  • 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.

More sentences with tear

  • Seeing her brought the memories flooding back and tears to my eyes.From the entry bring
  • My eyes were watering and now tears are running down my cheeks.From the entry run
  • The kids could hardly wait to tear the paper off their Christmas gifts.From the entry paper
  • I blinked away my tears and just idled away the morning.From the entry away
  • Hand me some tape. I need to fix a tear in this paper.From the entry tape
  • They fired tear gas at us, except the wind was blowing the wrong way.From the entry except
  • The other children constantly antagonized Joe to the point of tears.From the entry antagonize
  • She was a frequent blinker, always on the verge of tears.From the entry blinker
  • If you do not immediately vacate the area, we will make you leave with tear gas!From the entry vacate
  • The structural integrity of the bridge has been compromised by constant wear and tear.From the entry wear and tear
  • The old car seemed to be impervious to the wear and tear of age.From the entry impervious
  • I couldn't tear myself away from the movie after I had begun watching it.From the entry tear away
  • Could I please tear you away from that video game for a moment?From the entry tear away
  • Don't cry over spilt milk; tears won't put it back in the glass.From the entry spilt
  • The listeners were moved to tears by the luctiferous tolling of the funeral bells.From the entry luctiferous
  • Hey son, man up, okay? There will be time for tears later.From the entry man up
  • Do not tear off the price tag if you want to return that shirt.From the entry tear off
  • My friend's job at a call center is so stressful he could tear his hair out.From the entry tear one's hair out
  • We went to the funeral. The religious service was nice until the widow broke down in tears.From the entry religious service
  • I finally persuaded the landlord to tear up the lease and move to a month-by-month rental.From the entry tear up
  • After seeing Johnny tear up at that cheesy movie, I knew he was a loser.From the entry tear up
  • The grommeted drop cloth didn't tear where it was tied down.From the entry grommeted
  • The whole audience was in tears at the end of the film.From the entry in tears
  • As soon as I heard news of his death, tears started to well up in my eyes.From the entry well up
  • They're going to tear down the old shack when they redevelop the land.From the entry tear down
  • I was bored to tears after forty minutes stuck in that elevator.From the entry bored to tears
  • We've poured lots of blood, sweat, and tears into this project.From the entry blood, sweat and tears
  • When she slapped me, I tried hard to choke back my tears.From the entry choke back

Meaning of tear

  1. verb To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
  2. verb To injure as if by pulling apart.
  3. verb To destroy or reduce abstract unity or coherence, such as social, political or emotional.

Full definition of tear

Questions about tear in a sentence

How do you use tear in a sentence?
Tear is used as a verb and noun. For example: “He tore his coat on the nail.”
What is a short sentence with tear?
“My dress has torn.”
What does tear mean?
Tear means to rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tear (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use tear in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/tear. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.