tear gas
UK/ˈtɪə ɡæs/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈtɪː ɡæs/
tear gas noun: any lachrymatory, non-lethal chemical compound that causes the eyes to sting and water and/or irritates the respiratory system, mostly used for controlling crowds during riots or as self-defense.
Noun
tear gas (countable and uncountable, plural tear gases or tear gasses)
- Any lachrymatory, non-lethal chemical compound that causes the eyes to sting and water and/or irritates the respiratory system, mostly used for controlling crowds during riots or as self-defense.
- The dispatches […] also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies. Having lectured the Arab world about democracy for years, its collusion in suppressing freedom was undeniable as protesters were met by weaponry and tear gas made in the west...2013 June 7, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 18
Verb
tear gas (third-person singular simple present tear gases or tear gasses, present participle tear gassing, simple past and past participle tear gassed)
- To use tear gas.
- The riot squad tear gassed the mob.
tear gas meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
tear gas in Hindi
- chemical compound
- अश्रु गैस aśru gais, आँसू गैस ā̃sū gais
tear gas in Tamil
- கண்ணீர் புகை
tear gas in Urdu
- chemical compound
- آنْسُو گیس ānsū ges
tear gas in Bengali
- chemical compound
- কাঁদানে গ্যাস kãdane gês
More languagesFewer languages
- tear gas in Malayalam
- കണ്ണീർ വാതകം kaṇṇīṟ vātakaṁ
- tear gas in Kannada
- ಅಶ್ರುವಾಯು
- tear gas in Gujarati
- અશ્રુવાયુ aśruvāyu
- tear gas in Arabic
- الْغَاز الْمَسِيل لِلْدَمُوع al-ḡāz al-masīl li-l-damūʕ
- tear gas in Persian
- گاز اشکآور gâz-e ašk-âvar
- tear gas in Thai
- แก๊สน้ำตา gɛ́ɛt-nám-dtaa
- tear gas in Vietnamese
- hơi cay
Forms of tear gas
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | tear gases |
| plural | tear gasses |
| alternative form | teargas |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | tear gases |
| third-person singular present | tear gasses |
| present participle | tear gassing |
| past participle | tear gassed |
| past | tear gassed |
Questions about tear gas
- What does tear gas mean?
- Tear gas means any lachrymatory, non-lethal chemical compound that causes the eyes to sting and water and/or irritates the respiratory system, mostly used for controlling crowds during riots or as self-defense.
- What is tear gas in Hindi?
- Tear gas in Hindi is अश्रु गैस (aśru gais), आँसू गैस (ā̃sū gais). See Tear gas meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is tear gas?
- Tear gas can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce tear gas?
- Tear gas is pronounced /ˈtɪə ɡæs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of tear gas?
- The plural of tear gas is tear gases.
Words near tear gas in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tear gas (page history and authors); tear gas (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tear gas (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-tear gas.wav.
Cite this entry: “tear gas.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tear_gas. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.