tear

He tore his coat on the nail.

1886, Gustave Flaubert, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Madame Bovary, published 1856, Part III Chapter XI:

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 slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.
He suffered, poor man, at seeing her so badly dressed, with laceless boots, and the arm-holes of her pinafore torn down to the hips; for the charwoman took no care of her.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

(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 some muscles in a weight-lifting accident.

(transitive) To injure as if by pulling apart.

He was torn by conflicting emotions.

(transitive) To destroy or reduce abstract unity or coherence, such as social, political or emotional.

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.

(transitive) To make (an opening) with force or energy.

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.

(transitive, often with off or out) To remove by tearing, or with sudden great force.

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

(transitive, of structures, with down) To demolish.

My dress has torn.

(intransitive) To become torn, especially accidentally.

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.

I've been tearing around in my fucking nightgown. 24/7 Sylvia Plath.

2019, Lana Del Rey, Hope Is a Dangerous Thing:

(intransitive) To move or act with great speed, energy, or violence.

The chain shot tore into the approaching line of infantry.

(intransitive) To smash or enter something with great force.

en-verb

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

tears (present singular third-person)
tearing (participle present)
tore (past)
torn (participle past)
tore (colloquial nonstandard participle past)

износвам

to destroy or reduce abstract unity or coherence

strhnout

to demolish; to tear down — see also demolish

нося се

to move at excessive speed, act with energy

repiä

to smash or enter something with great force

From Middle English teren, from Old English teran (“to tear, lacerate”), from Proto-Germanic *teraną (“to tear, tear apart, rip”), from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to tear, tear apart”).
Cognate with Scots tere, teir, tair (“to rend, lacerate, wound, rip, tear out”), Dutch teren (“to eliminate, efface, live, survive by consumption”), German zehren (“to consume, misuse”), German zerren (“to tug, rip, tear”), Danish tære (“to consume”), Swedish tära (“to fret, consume, deplete, use up”), Icelandic tæra (“to clear, corrode”). Outside Germanic, cognate to Ancient Greek δέρω (dérō, “to skin”), Albanian ther (“to slay, skin, pierce”). Doublet of tire.


tear

A small tear is easy to mend, if it is on the seam.

to go on a tear


tear

There were big tears rolling down Lisa's cheeks.

Ryan wiped the tear from the paper he was crying on.

I pray you in your Letters, / When you ſhall theſe vnluckie deeds relate, / Speake of me, as I am. […] / Of one, whoſe ſubdu'd Eyes, / Albeit un-vsed to the melting moode, / Drops teares as faſt as the Arabian Trees / Their Medicinable gumme.

1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act V, scene ii, page 338:

'[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because "it was wicked to dress us like charity children".[…]'

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

A drop of clear, salty liquid produced from the eyes by crying or irritation.

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:

Something in the form of a transparent drop of fluid matter; also, a solid, transparent, tear-shaped drop, as of some balsams or resins.

(glass manufacture) A partially vitrified bit of clay in glass.

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:

That which causes or accompanies tears; a lament; a dirge.

ximo

drop of clear salty liquid from the eyes

kyynel

something in the form of a transparent drop of fluid matter

From Middle English teer (“tear”), from Old English tēar, from Proto-West Germanic *tahr, from Proto-Germanic *tahrą (“tear”), from Proto-Indo-European *dáḱru- (“tears”).
Cognates include Old Norse tár (Danish tåre and Norwegian tåre), Old High German zahar (German Zähre), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌲𐍂 (tagr), Irish deoir and Latin lacrima.


tear

Her eyes began to tear in the harsh wind.

en-verb

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

tears (present singular third-person)
tearing (participle present)
teared (participle past)
teared (past)


tear

Tea (“cloth”) + -ar. Compare Portuguese tear and Spanish telar.


tear

(Early Middle English) Alternative form of teer (“tear”)


tear

tēar ġēotan

tear (drop of liquid from the tear duct)

tēar (canonical masculine)
tēar (nominative singular)
tēaras (nominative plural)
tēar (accusative singular)
tēaras (accusative plural)
tēares (genitive singular)
tēara (genitive plural)
tēare (dative singular)
tēarum (dative plural)

desctree

Middle English: teer, teere, ter, tere, tær, tear (Early Middle English), tyer, tyear, tyar (Kent)
English: tear
Middle Scots: tear, tere, teir, tichwr, tychir
Scots: tear, taer, tare, teir


tear

1878, Joaquim Pedro Oliveira Martins, O hellenismo e a civilisação christan, publ. by the widow Bertand & Co., page 24.
Procuro o motivo, Lysidice, porque gravaram na tua louza estes emblemas: um bridão, um freio, o passaro que abunda em Tanagro, vivo e bellicoso, não costumam convir nem agradar á mulheres sedentarias que amam o tear e a roca.

I am trying to find out why they carved these emblems into your tombstone, Lysidice: a bridoon, a bit, the bird that is common in Tanagro, lively and warlike; they are usually neither convenient nor pleasant to sedentary women who love the loom and the distaff.

loom (machine used to make cloth out of thread)


tear

head

tear c (plural tearen, diminutive tearke)