tear someone a new one
tear someone a new one verb: to express great anger toward (a person) for some perceived offence or shortcoming; to castigate.
Verb
tear someone a new one (third-person singular simple present tears someone a new one, present participle tearing someone a new one, simple past tore someone a new one, past participle torn someone a new one)
- To express great anger toward (a person) for some perceived offence or shortcoming; to castigate.
- Brian, Katie's step-father, had been in the office for over an hour, and Estella, who taught in the class below, had been hard pressed to stop her students from muttering and giggling at the low boom and roar of Mr Morris's voice as he, in the parlance of the day, 'Tore Ben a new one'.2016, Helen Callaghan, Dear Amy, →ISBN, page 80
Synonyms of tear someone a new one
Forms of tear someone a new one
| third-person singular present | tears someone a new one |
|---|---|
| present participle | tearing someone a new one |
| past | tore someone a new one |
| past participle | torn someone a new one |
Origin of tear someone a new one
Euphemism, for tear someone a new asshole.
Questions about tear someone a new one
- What does tear someone a new one mean?
- Tear someone a new one means to express great anger toward (a person) for some perceived offence or shortcoming; to castigate.
- What part of speech is tear someone a new one?
- Tear someone a new one is a verb.
- What is the past tense of tear someone a new one?
- The past tense of tear someone a new one is tore someone a new one.
Words near tear someone a new one in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tear someone a new one (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: “tear someone a new one.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tear_someone_a_new_one. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.