tear

Verb (1)

tear (third-person singular simple present tears, present participle tearing, simple past tore, past participle torn or (now colloquial and nonstandard) tore)

1. (transitive) To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
   • 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...1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
2. (transitive) To injure as if by pulling apart.
   • He tore some muscles in a weight-lifting accident.
3. (transitive) To destroy or reduce abstract unity or coherence, such as social, political or emotional.
   • He was torn by conflicting emotions.
4. (transitive) To 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.

   Synonyms:

   rend, rip

5. (often, transitive) To remove by tearing, or with sudden great force.
   • 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.2012, Max Overton, Horemheb

   Synonyms:

   rip out, tear off, tear out

6. (transitive, with-down) To demolish.
   • The slums were torn down to make way for the new development.
7. (intransitive) To become torn, especially accidentally.
   • My dress has torn.
8. (intransitive) To 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.
9. (intransitive) To smash or enter something with great force.
   • The chain shot tore into the approaching line of infantry.
10. (intransitive) To be interrupted midway through.
    • torn write

Noun (1)

tear (plural tears)

1. A hole or break caused by tearing.
   • A small tear is easy to mend, if it is on the seam.
2. (slang) A rampage.
   • to go on a tear

Noun (2)

UK/tɪə/British/tɪː/

tear (plural tears)

1. A drop of clear, salty liquid produced from the eyes by crying or irritation.
   • Big tears streamed from Lisa's eyes, rolling down her cheeks.
   • Ryan wiped the tear from the paper he was crying on.
2. Something in the form of a transparent drop of fluid matter; also, a solid, transparent, tear-shaped drop, as of some balsams or resins.
   • Let Araby extol her happy coast, / Her fragrant flowers, her trees with precious tears.1717, William Congreve, Samuel Croxall, John Dryden, Laurence Eusden, John Ozell, “Book X”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
3. (glass manufacture) A partially vitrified bit of clay in glass.
4. That which causes or accompanies tears; a lament; a dirge.
   • Without meed of some melodious tear. Begin then, Sisters of the sacred well [...]1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Justa Edouardo King Naufrago, Cambridge: Printed by Thomas Buck, and Roger Daniel, published 1638, page 131

Verb (2)

UK/tɪə/British/tɪː/

tear (third-person singular simple present tears, present participle tearing, simple past and past participle teared)

1. (intransitive) To produce tears.
   • Her eyes began to tear in the harsh wind.