(tore )
damage
1 to damage sth by pulling it apart or into pieces or by cutting it on sth sharp; to become damaged in this way:
[VN] I tore my jeans on the fence. * I tore a hole in my jeans. * He tore the letter in two. * a torn handkerchief * [VN-ADJ] I tore the package open. * I tore open the package. * [V] Careful-the fabric tears very easily.
2 [VN] ~ sth in sth to make a hole in sth by force:
The blast tore a hole in the wall.
remove from sth / sb
3 [VN+adv./prep.] to remove sth from sth else by pulling it roughly or violently:
The storm nearly tore the roof off. * I tore another sheet from the pad. * He tore his clothes off (= took them off quickly and carelessly) and dived into the lake.
4 ~ yourself / sb (from sb/sth) to pull yourself/sb away by force from sb/sth that is holding you or them:
[VN] She tore herself from his grasp. * [VN-ADJ] He tore himself free.
injure muscle
5 [VN] to injure a muscle, etc. by stretching it too much:
a torn ligament * She tore a calf muscle playing squash.
move quickly
6 [V+adv./prep.] to move somewhere very quickly or in an excited way:
He tore off down the street. * A truck tore past the gates.
-torn
7 (in adjectives) very badly affected or damaged by sth:
to bring peace to a strife-torn country * a strike-torn industry
seealsoWAR-TORN
IDIOMS
tear sb/sth apart, to shreds, to bits, etc. to destroy or defeat sb/sth completely or criticize them or it severely:
We tore the other team apart in the second half. * The critics tore his last movie to shreds.
tear at your heart
Rate this entry
About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for tear is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is tear a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, tear is tagged as verb.
Does tear appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — tear appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
