"tear one's hair out" meaning in English

See tear one's hair out in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-tear one's hair out.ogg Forms: tears one's hair out [present, singular, third-person], tearing one's hair out [participle, present], tore one's hair out [past], torn one's hair out [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|tear<,,tore,torn> one's hair out}} tear one's hair out (third-person singular simple present tears one's hair out, present participle tearing one's hair out, simple past tore one's hair out, past participle torn one's hair out)
  1. (idiomatic) To react with extreme agitation. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: pull one's hair out, pull out one's hair Related terms: tear one's hair Translations (react with extreme agitation): s’arracher les cheveux (French), τραβάω τα μαλλιά μου (traváo ta malliá mou) (Greek), rasgarse las vestiduras (Spanish), mesarse los cabellos (Spanish)

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "tears one's hair out",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tearing one's hair out",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tore one's hair out",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "torn one's hair out",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "tear<,,tore,torn> one's hair out"
      },
      "expansion": "tear one's hair out (third-person singular simple present tears one's hair out, present participle tearing one's hair out, simple past tore one's hair out, past participle torn one's hair out)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with French translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Greek translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Spanish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "My friend's job at a call center is so stressful he could tear his hair out.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1871, Lewis Carroll, “Chapter IV”, in Through the Looking-Glass:",
          "text": "\"It's only a rattle,\" Alice said, after a careful examination of the little white thing. \"Not a rattle-snake, you know,\" she added hastily, thinking that he was frightened: \"only an old rattle — quite old and broken.\"\n\"I knew it was!\" cried Tweedledum, beginning to stamp about wildly and tear his hair. \"It's spoilt, of course!\" Here he looked at Tweedledee, who immediately sat down on the ground, and tried to hide himself under the umbrella.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To react with extreme agitation."
      ],
      "id": "en-tear_one's_hair_out-en-verb-AW~sDN0l",
      "links": [
        [
          "react",
          "react"
        ],
        [
          "extreme",
          "extreme"
        ],
        [
          "agitation",
          "agitation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To react with extreme agitation."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "tear one's hair"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "pull one's hair out"
        },
        {
          "word": "pull out one's hair"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "react with extreme agitation",
          "word": "s’arracher les cheveux"
        },
        {
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "traváo ta malliá mou",
          "sense": "react with extreme agitation",
          "word": "τραβάω τα μαλλιά μου"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "react with extreme agitation",
          "word": "rasgarse las vestiduras"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "react with extreme agitation",
          "word": "mesarse los cabellos"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-tear one's hair out.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/76/En-au-tear_one%27s_hair_out.ogg/En-au-tear_one%27s_hair_out.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/En-au-tear_one%27s_hair_out.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "tear one's hair out"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "tears one's hair out",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tearing one's hair out",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tore one's hair out",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "torn one's hair out",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "tear<,,tore,torn> one's hair out"
      },
      "expansion": "tear one's hair out (third-person singular simple present tears one's hair out, present participle tearing one's hair out, simple past tore one's hair out, past participle torn one's hair out)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "tear one's hair"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with French translations",
        "Terms with Greek translations",
        "Terms with Spanish translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "My friend's job at a call center is so stressful he could tear his hair out.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1871, Lewis Carroll, “Chapter IV”, in Through the Looking-Glass:",
          "text": "\"It's only a rattle,\" Alice said, after a careful examination of the little white thing. \"Not a rattle-snake, you know,\" she added hastily, thinking that he was frightened: \"only an old rattle — quite old and broken.\"\n\"I knew it was!\" cried Tweedledum, beginning to stamp about wildly and tear his hair. \"It's spoilt, of course!\" Here he looked at Tweedledee, who immediately sat down on the ground, and tried to hide himself under the umbrella.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To react with extreme agitation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "react",
          "react"
        ],
        [
          "extreme",
          "extreme"
        ],
        [
          "agitation",
          "agitation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To react with extreme agitation."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-tear one's hair out.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/76/En-au-tear_one%27s_hair_out.ogg/En-au-tear_one%27s_hair_out.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/En-au-tear_one%27s_hair_out.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "pull one's hair out"
    },
    {
      "word": "pull out one's hair"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "react with extreme agitation",
      "word": "s’arracher les cheveux"
    },
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "traváo ta malliá mou",
      "sense": "react with extreme agitation",
      "word": "τραβάω τα μαλλιά μου"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "react with extreme agitation",
      "word": "rasgarse las vestiduras"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "react with extreme agitation",
      "word": "mesarse los cabellos"
    }
  ],
  "word": "tear one's hair out"
}

Download raw JSONL data for tear one's hair out meaning in English (2.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.